Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has bypassed the Legacy media by answering questions about the New Zealand First Foundation in a live video on Facebook.
He is controlling his message by speaking directly to voters through his own social media bypassing the Press Gallery much to their chagrin.
Here are my comments, livestreamed earlier this evening, on the issue of the New Zealand First Foundation. Some listeners had volume issues, so here’s an updated version
Winston Peters
[…] Peters avoided reporters at Parliament today – instead promising to tell the public the truth on Facebook.
He spoke for about 10 minutes and defended his and his party’s conduct.
[…] In response to a question on whether it was ethical for RNZ to name people who have donated money under the $15,000 threshold, and could RNZ be sued for breaching privacy, Peters responded: “What a fascinating question and I’m going to leave that to the police because that is one of the questions we’re going to ask them.
“The reality is someone has stolen information here. We are pretty certain who that person is and it’s capable of being traced but we’re going to leave that to the police to decide.”
He said people were entitled to keep their identities secret if they were under the threshold. “…if we don’t have such a system of public fundraising, taxpayers would have to pay and we’re diametrically opposed to that.”
He said all the donations as far as he was aware had come from New Zealand legal entities or residents. In response to one questioner he said he was very confident none had come from Chinese Communists.
[…] Senior New Zealand First MP Shane Jones – who is also the regional economic development and forestry minister – has labelled the whole saga a nasty witch hunt.
He said the SFO process would reveal there was nothing wrong with the foundation or how it operated.[…]
rnz.co.nz/news/political/409384/winston-peters-on-foundation-donations-i-did-not-receive-any-money