The man accused in parliament of running a porn store and having connections to the Man Boy Love Association has hit out at his accuser.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters used parliamentary privilege to question Jim Peron's immigration status, claiming he uses his shop as a guise to sell pornography and that he has links to the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).
Peron says the accusations are baseless, but he's struggling to cope with them.
"Parliament is the only place in New Zealand were you are explicitly given permission to get up and lie and the law protects you in doing so," says Peron.
He opened his bookshop up to One News - it specialises in political and philosophical literature and a small collection of gay novels and videos.
Peron says a book store he took over in San Francisco in the 1980s was carrying a NAMBLA news sheet, but so did many stores at the time and he was never a member.
"I'd be hard pressed to come up with something more damaging and intentionally vicious," Peron says.
Peters wouldn't repeat the allegations he made in parliament when he appeared on Close Up on Wednesday night, but he was back on the attack on Thursday.
In parliament Peters has now demanded to know whether a 1987 raid on a shop Peron owned in San Francisco was taken into account when he was allowed to enter New Zealand.
Peters alleged the shop was raided as Peron was employing a sex offender and that material featuring men having sex with boys as young as eight was found.
Immigration Minister Paul Swain said he is aware of the raid and has been advised that publications of that nature were stocked in the shop.
"In order to get a long term visa Peron would have had to have a police clearance from the countries he had been in," said Swain.
He said immigration officials rely on international police checks and because no criminal record was found for Peron and he was therefore given clearance.
Peron's options are limited. He can't sue, but he can have his response written into the record of parliament.
The chairman of parliament's privileges committee, Matt Robson, told One News Peters hasn't breached the rules but has breached an informal convention among MPs over checking the facts first on claims like these.
