Winston Peters wants to see prison terms for Immigration officials

12:03 pm today

NZ First leader Winston Peters

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Winston Peters says he's not surprised by revelations ministers were misled by Immigration NZ officials and claims those responsible "should be put in prison".

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said on Tuesday officials "deliberately withheld" information from both her and the previous Labour government about a biometrics project and used "creative accounting" to avoid scrutiny.

Speaking to reporters after a scrutiny week hearing for the Racing portfolio, Peters said he told Stanford "some time ago" Immigration New Zealand was the "worst department in this country by miles".

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford

Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

He said the news didn't come as a surprise.

"I'm pleased they've been found out, and now they're going to be straightened out, because they've simply been lying to parliamentarians and lying to the taxpayers of this country."

He said the problem in this country was there were "no consequences", that's why people behaved in a certain way. He referenced the Winebox inquiry and said nobody was put in prison.

The Winebox inquiry investigated claims of corruption in the Serious Fraud Office and Inland Revenue Department, but found no grounds to support those claims.

In the case of Immigration New Zealand, and the revelations this week, Peters said those responsible needed to be held to account.

"Of course you'd lose your job, they need to be put in prison as well.

"These are the consequences."

He referenced the wasted $30 million, saying that could have helped ordinary families.

He rejected the suggestion he was messing with the judicial process, "the highest court in the land is here, not downtown".

Peters said he trusted officials, "they're worthy of trust, and some of them are just excellent," but said you get a "few apples that have gone off".

He questioned why it had taken so long to work out things were wrong, and asked what oversight was happening.

Asked if there should have been better ministerial oversight, he said "obviously, yes."

"When you inherit something, you might think it's safe," he said, and "to be fair" to Stanford he said she would have thought the previous minister would have known about the issues.

Peters said the relevant Labour ministers should have "picked it up from the word go", but acknowledged there were countless scandals in the country that hadn't been covered properly, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic and a warning to officials about the risks of vaccine doses for young people.

'...they fell very short'

Speaking separately at Parliament, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said "accountability" was important to ensure such conduct was never repeated.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis

Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii

"The message I want everyone in the public service to hear is: do not cover up bad news, send it up to the minister's desk, so that we can take the right decisions on behalf of New Zealanders," she said.

"When you cover your own butt, you're actually putting New Zealand taxpayers at risk."

Willis said she had no reason to think that such behaviour stretched more widely through the public service.

"My experience is that most public servants come to work each day with high levels of integrity, wanting to do a good job on behalf of their fellow New Zealanders, but clearly, in this instance, they fell very short."

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