Peters vows to catch ‘pension leak’ lawbreaker
NZ First leader Winston Peters says he won’t stand by and let someone get away with ‘‘blatant dirty politics’’ after information about his superannuation overpayment was leaked.
Peters has confirmed his fortnightly pension was overpaid for several years, adding that when the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) alerted him to the issue in July, he immediately sought to repay it.
Peters won’t disclose how much he had to pay back to the state but denied reports that it was $18,000.
‘‘Someone decided they would break the law and leak it in a political way and some of those tweets and other comments point to knowledge out there that it was malicious and politically dirty,’’ Peters said after a candidates’ meeting in Northland last night.
‘‘I’ve been flat out, as you know, on the campaign of issues. When I’ve got time, I’ll turn my mind to it but I’m not going to stand by and let someone get away with blatant dirty politics and breaking the law.’’
Peters said he had investigators working on uncovering the leak and would let the public know who it was, though ‘‘I’ve got my deep suspicions’’.
Earlier yesterday, the politician said neither he nor MSD could work out who had made the mistake that led to his superannuation overpayment. He is refusing to give a privacy waiver that would enable the ministry to discuss the matter.
Peters, a champion of New Zealand’s super scheme, started collecting the pension in 2010 and was with his partner, Jan Trotman, when he applied.
He said the overpayment likely started in 2013/14 because up until that point he was completing annual returns, so the mistake would have been picked up by Inland Revenue.
‘‘From the time I got a letter to the time it was resolved would have been a couple of days.
‘‘When it was brought to my attention, I was astonished by it, seriously shocked by it and surprised by it – and that’s why I gave it my upmost attention and I left Wellington to come to Auckland and see to it. I wanted to know exactly how this happened and we quickly sorted it out.’’
Peters said he still wasn’t completely clear what the mistake was because MSD had been unable to resolve it.
‘‘The reality is a payment like that also attracts interest ... I just said ‘you tell me what it is to fix this mistake up’. Between us we couldn’t get it resolved but that’s immaterial. If a mistake’s made, it’s made and it needed to be fixed."
Once he was told how much he owed, Peters said it was paid back in under 24 hours.
He told Radio New Zealand he was contacted by MSD after Trotman started receiving superannuation herself but said he didn’t know whether it was her application that made the ministry aware of the issue.
He denied that he was receiving a rate of superannuation for a single person when he was cohabiting.
National leader Bill English said he wouldn’t rule Peters out of a National-NZ First government on the basis of what he had heard so far. His advice to Peters was to ‘‘explain the facts’’.
ACT leader David Seymour, however, has blasted Peters about his overpayment. ‘‘The timing of [his] admission makes him look very shifty. How could he not notice superannuation overpayments when he’s made a career of representing superannuitants?’’