Winston’s lies unravel in court

An excellent story by Tim Murphy at Newsroom. Winston’s lies normally can’t be fact checked but thanks to the court case he initiated, they can be. Here’s the summary:

• Winston said it was “demonstrably false” he repaid $18,000 and that it was “way less” than that. He repaid $17,936.43 which is 99.6% of $18,000
• Winston said the over-payments likely started in 2013/14. They started in 2010
• Winston said in 2017 he asked to speak to the original staffer but she no longer worked there. In fact she worked in the same office in the same role.
• Winston claimed he paid interest on his under-payments. He didn’t.
• Winston claimed his payment was abated and he didn’t received his full super. In fact he was paid the full rate.
• Winston claimed MSD could not resolve how the “mistake” happened. In fact MSD said it was because he declared he was single.
• Winston claimed his form was incomplete as he had not ticked a box on his current relationship but in fact he has declared he was separated
• Winston claimed the form had been altered. It had not.
• Winston claimed the staffer he dealt with in 2020 was “very senior”. She wasn’t. She was a standard case manager.

Now consider he is our Deputy Prime Minister.