Winston Peters and Paula Bennett had a tense exchange in Parliament today over Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway's handling of the Karel Sroubek case.
"Mr Lees-Galloway inherited a defective, flawed, inadequate, and insufficient system of scrutiny for such applications," Mr Peters said during Question Time.
"He himself became a victim of that inadequate system, admits that openly and is committed to fixing it, and we have confidence in him doing so."
Yesterday, Mr Lees-Galloway announced the findings of the review into Sroubek's residency case, which determined the Czech drug smuggler may be liable for deportation.
Mr Lees-Galloway said the case file provided to him "may not have provided a complete picture", however, he acknowledged responsibility for the original decision to let Sroubek stay.
"Could she have saved the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars, maintained actual confidence in the immigration system, and not put New Zealanders at risk by simply ensuring her Minister of Immigration made the right decision in the first place?" Ms Bennett asked Mr Peters on behalf of the Prime Minister.
Mr Peter answered: "The National Party and the member can make all sorts of claims, but the reality is that over a hundred people came in under the defunct, deficient, flawed system that the National Party, for nine years."
He said it was left to Mr Lees-Galloway "to fix it up".
Ms Bennett asked what the Prime Minister would say to 600 families who had been denied residency in New Zealand in the past year.
"To make that statement is to pursue the most cheap line in politics," Mr Peters replied on behalf of Jacinda Ardern.
"These people have not been chosen as against Mr Sroubek's case; they're all examined independently."
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