新西蘭英語 53 Winston Peters

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On Friday, Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First Party, announced that he was stepping down from his job as Minister. He said this is a temporary move because the Serious Fraud Office is checking on money that some people said they gave him. The rules of Parliament say that MPs must tell about any gift of more than $500. If Mr Peters received a lot of money and kept it a secret, this is fraud. It could be serious fraud because he is an MP and also the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Serious Fraud Office will check the stories about three donations of money. One donation was $100,000 which a New Zealand millionaire, now living overseas, said he paid to Mr Peters. Mr Peters said he did not know about the money. His lawyer, Brian Henry, said that he did not tell Mr Peters about this money. It was used for paying legal bills.

Sir Bob Jones, another New Zealand millionaire, living in Wellington, said he gave Mr Peters a donation of $25,000. A New Zealand First Party official said this money went into the Spencer Trust. This is a company which looks after money for the New Zealand First Party. Mr Peters said he does not know anything about the money in this Trust.

Another rich family, the Vela family, also gave Mr Peters money, maybe as much as $150,000. It’s possible this money also went into the Spencer Trust. There is now a limit on how much a political party can spend on elections so the government is not happy about secret trust money.

John Key, the leader of the National Party, said that he would not let Mr Peters become a Minister if National wins the election. He knows that this could mean that National will not be the next government because if they have more MPs after the election, they might still need the New Zealand First Party’s support.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand First Party supports the Labour government. They have promised to vote with the government next week over the Emissions Trading Act which will force companies to pay for the carbon dioxide they send into the air.