Peters' info leak tackled at debate

Finance Minister Steven Joyce stood next to Winston Peters at an election debate last night — and was asked to confirm the National Party didn’t leak the New Zealand First leader’s private information.

Peters stared straight ahead after host Patrick Gower put the question to Joyce, saying he wanted to address the elephant in the room.

Joyce laughed, and said he could categorically confirm the “leak” did not come from the National Party.

Peters had to wait while the other participants — Green leader James Shaw, Labour’s finance spokesman Grant Robertson and Act leader David Seymour — gave their views on the controversy, with all saying they wanted to put the focus back on policy debate.

When it was his turn to comment, Peters said he was the victim of a conspiracy, and told Joyce, “too many of your people are talking to me” because they don’t like the dirty politics.

When someone in the audience laughed at the ASB Great Finance Debate in Queenstown, the Northland MP turned to them.

“You can laugh about privacy. But one day madam, they will come for you — and when they do, you won’t be so happy. Privacy is a part of our society. We are a great democracy.

“They broke the law and they are not going to get away with it.”

Peters said he had been targeted by National.

“They are doing that because they know when we want a policy change, we will get it.”

All parties apart from the Greens attacked Labour’s failure to say definitively it would or would not introduce a capital gains tax or how much its water tax would be.

Steven Joyce accused Labour’s Grant Robertson of dealing in “weasel words”.

Peters said people were entitled to know before the election what taxation rates were, not after it.