Peters Winston: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Peters Winston: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3428. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 My how zealous they are when they do not know what is going on. That speech by Jacqui Dean was one of those defences based on flimflam ballyhoo and hype. 
But the fact is I want to know why no one has been arrested for the fraud at the Te Roopu Whakaruruhau o nga Wahine Maori women’s refuge in Palmerston North. During December and January—the busiest time of the year—this refuge which is funded by the taxpayers under Whanau Ora and defended by the National Government and Tariana Turia was actually shut so any Maori woman in need had to go down the road to the other non-Maori refuge provider. That is No. 1. And the auditor’s report shows that this refuge was actually a family fund money-generating scheme. Five of the eight workers are direct family. Does that have a nepotistic ring about it to you? Five of the eight workers are direct family. It has been their gravy train.  
Why have no charges been laid when the word “fraud” is screaming from the audit report? In fact it has a subheading “Fraud”. The report is a damning indictment of the so-called providers set up by the unholy alliance between National and the Maori Party. This is more than shonky; this is a big fraud and the victims are the taxpayers and the Maori people in genuine need as always happens when this sort of thing goes on. Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into these so-called providers. The whole social welfare system is being privatised and handed to providers like the Maori women’s refuge in Palmerston North with that long Maori name.  
This is what the auditor’s report shows: first the family paid their fines from public money; secondly they overpaid themselves for leave; thirdly they travelled overseas on the taxpayer; fourthly they paid themselves bonuses—I hope Mr Sam Lotu-Iiga is listening to this because it has got a ring about it has it not—and fifthly they did not pay their GST for several years. The auditor advised the people running this refuge to check to see whether their asset still exists. This is an appalling case—all in the name of the National Government and the Maori Party deal.  
The National Government and the Maori Party had better come up with an explanation because every time you turn over the stone of Whanau Ora out pops what? Something going wrong because it was never based on any sound fundamental analysis. They also need to spell out for the long-suffering taxpayers and the Maori people in genuine need why this fraud is allowed to happen.  
We know the Government is using taxpayers’ money to buy the Maori Party—$174 million and rising. A whole industry has been spawned. Under the cloak of helping Maori in need armies of providers are heading for the pork barrel and there is no end to it under this Government. That is the party over there that campaigned on one law for all—for Kiwi not iwi. It has hardly been in Government for a fourth year and what does it do? It heads down the path of ethnic rights and separatism and division which it campaigned it would make sure it would never allow on its watch.  
But this is worse: young Maori in need—in this case women who need help—have been taken to the cleaners by a provider and John Key was advised of this on 10 February this year. He got notice of it. What has he done? As usual “Mr Spray and Walk Away” decided to do nothing and hoped it would go away. Well it will not—not while New Zealand First is here.