Cuppa part of Justice Minister’s official programme

Evidence continues to mount that Judith Collins used her taxpayer-funded visit to China to undertake pre-planned promotional activities for her husband’s company, Labour MP Grant Robertson says.

“Judith Collins didn’t just ‘pop in on the way to the airport’ as she has tried to claim.

“According to answers to written Parliamentary questions provided today by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the visit to Oravida was added to her official programme on 11 October, 2013 – 12 days beforehand.

“This was no casual or last minute visit. It was one of two pre-planned events in two different cities by the Justice Minister promoting her husband’s company on a taxpayer-funded trip.

“It is strange for an official part of a minister’s visit not to be in her report back to Cabinet. This looks like a cover-up.

“Judith Collins is also now trying to gag TVNZ for its reporting of her obfuscating and misleading comments over her conflict of interest with Oravida.

“The Justice Minister has bullied TVNZ into removing from its website its lead story last night.

“The story highlighted her admission in Parliament yesterday that before she left New Zealand she was invited to have dinner with Oravida executives and that she was told the name and role of a senior Chinese border control official who would be joining them.

“Judith Collins’ knows she had a conflict of interest and is now lashing out at the fourth estate. The evidence is mounting day by day yet John Key still seems prepared to have her as a minister,” Grant Robertson says.

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