Nats given early details of Peters’ super saga
The Beehive was told about Winston Peters’ private meeting over his superannuation payments a fortnight ago and before it was leaked to media, the Herald can reveal.
The Ministry of Social Development told its minister, Anne Tolley, on August 15 under the “no surprises” policy that it had met with NZ First leader Winston Peters about his superannuation payments, but Tolley denies the leak came from her office.
The Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Wayne Eagleson, confirmed last night that he was also told but said he did not pass on the information to Bill English or anyone else in English’s office.
News of the briefing comes as Peters questions how news he had to repay money for superannuation overpayments made it to the media, saying it would be a “criminal” action for his personal information to be leaked.
Any suggestion that National leaked Peters’ personal troubles could have a damaging effect on its chances of attracting the backing of his New Zealand First Party to become the next Government.
Peters revealed on Sunday that in July he had paid back overpayments of superannuation between 2010 and 2017, saying he had repaid it as soon as he was alerted to it by the ministry and did not know how the error that led to the overpayments was made.
Peters disclosed it after inquiries from Newshub, while Newsroom also reported details on the case, including that the ministry had discovered it while processing the superannuation application of his partner, Jan Trotman, a few months ago.
A spokeswoman for Tolley confirmed to the Herald that on August 15 she was told under the “no surprises” policy that ministry staff had met with Peters about his superannuation payments.
“MSD advised they were satisfied with the outcome of that meeting.”
Tolley would not be interviewed, but a spokeswoman said she denied it had been leaked from anyone in her office.
“MSD takes privacy breaches of personal information very seriously. As it’s operational, it’s not appropriate for the minister to comment further”.
National’s campaign chair, Steven Joyce, has denied National was behind the leak, saying he had not known about the issue until it became public on Sunday.
“All I know is it’s got nothing to do with us.
“I have no idea where it came from, so I’m not going to suddenly conject or blame people. I checked with National Party people today and nobody as far as I can see or whom I spoke to had any idea about it.”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Social Development said “routine checks” would be done to ensure no private information had been passed on by someone at the ministry.
“We have no reason to believe that any personal, private information has been passed to a third party. Given the high-profile nature of this case we will be undertaking some routine checks to make sure this is the case.”
The ministry would not provide further details on the case, including whether it was its own administrative error that caused the problem.
“While we appreciate the level of public interest in this case, the ministry holds a great deal of very personal information that we have a duty of care to protect. It is not our information to share. As stated by Mr Peters, we have been in contact and the matter has been resolved to the ministry’s satisfaction.”
National leader Bill English and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern were reserving judgment on Peters yesterday, saying it was a matter for him to deal with.
English said there were clearly questions that would be asked and it was up to Peters to decide how to answer them.
He said he would be concerned if someone working for the ministry or IRD had leaked details about Peters’ circumstances. “People expect them to be treated confidentially.”
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern said she would not be asking Peters for an explanation or more information.
Asked whether Peters should release his correspondence, Ardern said “transparency is always helpful”, adding “that’s a question for Mr Peters”.
Peters said it was unclear how the overpayments happened, but the ministry had not found any wrongdoing and were satisfied with the way the matter was settled.
“We tried to resolve how this had happened and we could not. There had been an error.”
He denied misleading the ministry about his relationship with Trotman, saying she had been with him when he signed up for the super. He had looked at his initial application form again but would not say if he had ticked a box disclosing he was in a relationship or not.
Peters has refused to release documents relating to the overpayments but said as far he was aware he had been getting the payment above the rate he was entitled to.
Because Trotman was not on super it is likely Peters should have been on the payment for “singles” living with others, but was instead getting the payment for single people living alone, which was about $28 a week more. That totals about $10,000 in overpayments and Peters could also have been charged interest and penalty fees on top of that.
There is no separate rate for people on super who are in a relationship with a partner who is not yet eligible for super. Once both are eligible for super, the rates change.