A lot of politics and political blogging is all about the details and the people who don’t check them. This includes National’s pollster David Farrar who falsely asserted yesterday that “The letter Winston would have received seven times“. But also our own Bill who was much less explicit (fortunately for me) the day before in “Dear Winston“.
I thought it was unlikely at the time and did a brief search on the MSD website without finding an explanation. I was unable to find out what these letters are even called. Once you get that you can search google in NZ and get the first item for “msd annual circumstances letter” which explains it.
The explanation was provided from the MSD to Audrey Young at the Herald. Good to see that they still seek facts.
Some people have claimed that Peters would have received a letter every year for the past seven years asking him to confirm his relationship status.
But that in fact is not the case. The Ministry of Social development says that “annual circumstances letters” were sent to NZ superannuation clients: who do not have personal earnings and who receive the accommodation supplement, or the single living alone rate of NZ Super, or a disability allowance with a permanent medical condition.
“Any other NZ superannuitant is not routinely contacted to reconfirm their circumstances”.
So unless Winston Peters did not declare his income as a MP and party leader which seems unlikely, or that he claimed that he was living on his own, or that he has a disability allowance – he wouldn’t have gotten one of these letters for the last seven years.
Perhaps David Farrar should do something unlikely for a change and apoligize for this false fact defamation couched in the following weasel words.
A reader who is on NZ Superannuation has sent me a copy of the letter they receive every year from MSD confirming their arrangements. As you can see they explicitly state your relationship status and living situation.
The rogue MSD staffer who altered Mr Peters’ application form must also have intercepted these annual letters because surely someone who is a former Treasuer of New Zealand would have immediately noticed something is wrong if he had seen a letter from MSD asking him to confirm his relationship status and living situation, and incorrectly stating them as single and living alone.
This rogue MSD staffer has a lot to answer for. I think MSD should call in the Police to try and track his or her down.
Of course it is possible that Peters did receive these letters. In which case you have to wonder what excuse he has for not responding to them.
It could also be said that David Farrar is financial client of the National party because of the substantial levels of work that his polling company Curia gets from them. It could also be said that David Farrar uses his ‘private’ blog site in a plausible deniability mode to test memes for the National party. This has been obvious over the last decade that I have been operating this site.
Even without the insights of Dirty Politics about the linkages between the National party and its MPs and David Farrar, you could obviously see campaigns being tested in the comments sewer at Kiwiblog, then being exploited by the National party.
So my question for National is why in the hell are they obviously trying to really piss off their only viable coalition partner? Have National given up on trying to form the next government? Because Winston Peters looks rather pissed off with the political machinations of National and their privileged access into the MSD at present.
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