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Related Articles Peters makes porn claims in parliament

Peters, Hide face off over allegations

Mar 10, 2005 5:04 PM

Under parliamentary privilege New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has accused Act leader Rodney Hide of backing an immigrant who came to New Zealand and allegedly set up a shop selling porn. But are the allegations simply a case of political point scoring?

Peters also claims the man has links to the Man Boy Love Association.

Hide says Peters claims are untrue.

"He's saying it because Jim Peron is a friend of mine and because he's gay. So he thinks he's fair game and somehow that's supposed to embarrass me. I think it's appalling," Hide told Close Up

He says he can assure people that Jim Peron, the man at the centre of the allegations, doesn't run a porn shop.

Peron also denies any involvement in the association and says his book shop is not a porn shop. He says Peters is trying to destroy his life for political gain.

The allegations have raised the issue of whether it is fair to target one man, or whether what Peters has claimed is an abuse of parliamentary privilege.

Peters told Close Up that parliamentary privilege is designed to enable people to say without fear or favour what they feel they should say.

Hide says he challenged the New Zealand First leader to repeat what he said in parliament in public and Peters said he would.

But on Close Up Peters refused to comment on whether his information was accurate - stating the parameters of parliamentary privilege.

"Now he's not even prepared to say that what he said in parliament was accurate, that shows you the quality of his information," Hide says.

Instead Peters raised further allegations against Peron, this time regarding an article on child porn.

Peters claims Peron wrote an article in 2003 saying that kiddy porn was designed by certain people including politicians to stop freedom of speech and the rights of adults.

Hide angrily replied that the new allegation was not what Peters had said in parliament and accused him of trying to shift the parameters.

Peters claims that he has used Peron as an example of New Zealand's shambolic immigration laws, but that does not sit well with the Act leader who believes the allegations were just a way to get media coverage in election year.

"You think it's okay to take a person simply because they're gay, simply because they're a friend of a politician and besmirch them and destroy their lives. Why? Because you want to be on TV because it's an election year," Hide said.