The Taxpayers’ Union is stunned Winston Peters’s lawyer argued Peters should not have to pay legal costs because the Crown’s costs were covered by taxpayers, according to coverage in the NZ Herald.

Mr Peters had been ordered to pay around $320,000 – only a fraction of the estimated $1 million taxpayers were forced to stump up for the case.

New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says, “It’s not as if Winston Peters’s case failed at the last hurdle. Based on reports from people who were in the Court, it was always hopeless. It appears to have been done as a political distraction from the real issue – that Mr Peters was not only double dipping from the taxpayer in that he was receiving NZ Super on top of his $326,697 salary, but also illegally claiming the higher single bachelor amount.”

“Peters should pay the whole lot, not the small fraction the High Court rules dictate.”

“While he’s at it, what about the $158,000 his party illegally used to campaign in 2005? Taxpayers still haven’t seen a cent of that.”

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