Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader

23 July 2014

Discipline and Transparency Lacking in MP’s Departure

Prime Minister John Key must come clean on MPs standing down, says New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“The Prime Minister must come clean about the reason Claudette Hauiti, MP, is not being the subject of party discipline or being held accountable.

“Saying that she will not stand at the next election is not a response to improper spending of taxpayers’ money and the Prime Minister must surely know that.

“She will stay on in Parliament on full salary until the September 20 and receive another three months’ pay after that.

“Where is the accountability in that?

“After all, it was the Prime Minister who pledged greater transparency on MPs’ expenses in 2010.

“And now he seeks to apply different rules to his own caucus by saying the breaches were unintentional and he was ‘not aware’ of further misspending. Then he claimed that, ‘I don’t have any advice on that’.

“Those statements are simply false.

“Mr Key made the call on Claudette Hauiti on Monday night, July 21, after he knew she had engaged in a lot of private spending on her parliamentary card, and that, in addition, there were financial irregularities that neither she nor the National Party could reconcile.

“Well, by his failure to discipline Claudette Hauiti he demonstrates that statement was not worth the air it passed on,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media