Turei faces questions next week
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei will meet with Work and Income investigators next week about her benefit fraud.
She has yet to seek legal advice about whether any charges could force her to leave Parliament.
‘‘Today, I have spoken over the phone with an investigator from the Ministry of Social Development,’’ Turei said in a statement yesterday.
‘‘I was phoned by this person after their office received a letter from me, which I sent on Monday.’’
‘‘The letter asserted my willingness to co-operate fully with an investigation into the period of time I received a benefit during the 1990s, and I confirmed that over the phone today.
‘‘During our phone call, I made myself available to be interviewed about my case. We are in the process of confirming the details of that meeting, but it will take place next week.’’
Turei dropped a bombshell at the party’s annual conference two weeks ago when she admitted she committed benefit fraud while studying for her law degree and raising her baby on the domestic purposes benefit.
Turei said yesterday she did not regret admitting the fraud.
‘‘Poverty is a political issue. We solve it by ending poverty, by changing the system that drives people into such despair. We need a national conversation about how to end poverty in this country and that’s been started,’’ Turei said.
She said she would comply with investigators and pay back the full amount owed.
She said she had not smoked any marijuana or done any illegal drugs while on the benefit, but the question itself was offensive.
‘‘These are the kind of interrogative questions that beneficiaries are subject to all the time. We don’t ask those on Working For Families or Super these questions.’’
Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis said it was unlikely Turei would be forced from Parliament as the charges would be hard to bring and the law at the time did not specify a prison sentence of more than two years – the barometer for whether a convicted MP has to leave Parliament.
"Poverty is a political issue.'' Greens co-leader Metiria Turei
Turei’s co-leader, James Shaw, said he was proud of Turei for coming forward.
‘‘We actually treat poor people in this country terribly, and the law is an ass, in this case.
‘‘We’ve got a legal situation that forces people to remain below the poverty line and it takes good people and puts them in an impossible position, where they have to choose between feeding their own child and informing a government agency about the nature of their circumstances, and I think that that is unacceptable,’’ Shaw said.
Turei is also under the spotlight for not looking for work while lying to Work & Income but spending time running for political parties.
In 1993 she stood for the Mcgillicuddy Serious Party and in the 1996 election she campaigned for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
‘‘I also had fun like other people do,’’ she said.
‘‘[Campaigning] took a little bit of time but this is the thing – people are entitled to have a decent life and I want every beneficiary to have enough money to be financially secure.’’
Asked what her response was to people who said she should have been working instead, Turei said, ‘‘they’re entitled to their opinion and views and can make their judgments’’.
The comments come on the back of Turei saying on Tuesday she would ‘‘never abuse the trust’’ of people who confided in her that they had broken the law.
‘‘I’ve had people come and disclose to me their circumstances and I’ll never abuse that trust. What I will do is fix the system so they never have to lie again.’’