10. Refugees—Vetting ProcessRt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Prime MinisterRefugees—Vetting Process10. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement in November last year that refugees go through a proper vetting process and a lot of work is done to establish that they are genuine refugees"; and if so why?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes; because I believe it to be true.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Well if that is the case why under National were almost 1600 visa applications approved when officials knew the applicants would subsequently apply for refugee or protection status when they got into New Zealand?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I may be wrong—and I am sure if I am the member will be able to correct me in his future supplementary questions—but I suspect that if he is not talking about people who came through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) programme which is what the quote I gave was about then he is talking about people who are coming in and seeking asylum at the airport.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Bearing in mind that they are not seeking asylum at the airport but rather coming in on visas—like visitor or student visas or on temporary visa waivers—if there is a proper vetting process why did his Government approve almost 900 visitor visas for non-genuine applicants who claimed after they got here and were in New Zealand refugee or protection status?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: OK let me help the member through this. He is obviously a bit confused. The UNHCR programme—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister cannot start off with an insult. I have got the documentation from the department so it is not a matter of confusion. I am just asking him to explain and in his first opening answer he pointed to people who were refugees on a UN-type list. I am talking about people who have come here with a temporary visa and who then after they have been here for a week or 2 months apply for status.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: It is well known in this House that the supplementary questions follow the primary question. The primary question was solely about the UNHCR programme.Mr SPEAKER: There has been a subsequent supplementary question asked that is certainly in order. I do not think the Prime Minister was derogatory or insulting in any way at the start of the answer but he got only a few words out before the member took his point of order. I think time has gone. I am going to invite the member to ask the question again to get some coherence and then we will await the answer.Rt Hon Winston Peters: If there is in his words "a proper vetting process" why did his Government approve almost 900 visitor visas for non-genuine applicants who claimed refugee or protection status well after they got into New Zealand?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly under the refugee programmes that are run through the UNHCR there is as I said in my quote a very very thorough process that we go through and that includes assessment carried out by the UNHCR assessments made onshore and offshore by Immigration New Zealand and references to other intelligence from our "Five Eyes" partners. There are some people who come to New Zealand under another category and claim refugee or asylum status here in New Zealand. Those numbers are significantly less under this Government than when the member asking the question was a Minister. So this Government has done a better job in that category.Rt Hon Winston Peters: If our vetting process is "proper" and ensures that "genuine" applicants are applying for refugee status why has his Government approved—this is a third category—almost 160 applicants who arrived on a limited purpose or transit visa and then long after they got here applied for that refugee status?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member will need to direct those sorts of questions to the Minister of Immigration because the member asked me a question specifically about the UNHCR programme. If he wants to try to be a little bit silly then he should go and ask a proper first question.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Given Prime Minister that no mention was made about the UN refugee programme if under National Immigration New Zealand knew that almost 1600 visa applications were not genuine not related to the UN—[Interruption] or to "Big Ears"—why did they grant those visas in the first place?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member will need to direct that question to the Minister of Immigration who would have that fact. But what I do know on the advice of the Minister of Immigration is that the numbers are considerably less under this Government than when the member was a Minister."