Winston Peters says officials who misled ministers, avoided Cabinet should lose jobs, be imprisoned

Author: Adam Pearse ,
Publish Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2026, 12:40pm

Foreign Minister Winston Peters believes strong punishments should be handed out. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Foreign Minister Winston Peters believes immigration officials who allegedly misled their minister and hid a plagued IT project from Cabinet scrutiny should be sacked and imprisoned.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford yesterday revealed a report into a biometric capability project that claimed Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) officials had misled her and previous ministers for years about the project’s viability and used “creative accounting” to ensure the project did not meet the financial threshold to be taken to Cabinet, knowingly avoiding scrutiny.

Peters, speaking after a select committee appearance this morning, said the scandal amounted to officials lying not just to MPs but also to the public, and he believed there should be consequences.

“Of course you’d lose your job, they need to be put in prison as well.

“It’s a conspiracy against the people, for goodness’ sake.”

He lamented the more than $30 million that would be written off due to the project being terminated.

“How many houses could that subscribe to for ordinary families?”

Peters said the revelations were “no surprise” to him, claiming he had warned Stanford and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.

“I told Nicola, I told Erica some time ago that that’s the worst department in this country by miles.

“But I’m pleased they’ve been found out and now they’re going to be straightened out because they’ve simply been lying to parliamentarians and lying to the taxpayers of this country.”

The Public Service Commission is expected to release terms of reference early next week for an investigation into the matter.

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche yesterday told the Herald it was unlikely any public servants found to have misled ministers or used “creative accounting” techniques could remain employed by the public service.

“From my perspective, without the review having been done, there are serious allegations, that people have breached the basic level of codes of conduct, then I think it’s very difficult for them to maintain [an] ongoing role in the public sector,” he said.

Asked if that meant any implicated staff would lose their jobs, Roche said: “If the evidence suggests that’s appropriate, then we will do what is required.”

The ministry would also undergo several reviews, including a stocktake of its IT projects and responding to findings from the commission’s investigation. MBIE chief executive Nic Blakeley said he would engage in employment reviews if that was found to be necessary.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.