Former MP lied about weight loss

Former Act MP Donna Awatere Huata lied about how she lost weight, partly because she did not want to be made fun of in Parliament over her stomach-stapling operation.

Giving evidence in the Auckland District Court yesterday for the first time since her fraud trial began, Awatere Huata said she told reporters that her weight loss was due to diet and exercise.

When asked why she did not mention her operation, she said it was a private matter and that she recalled jokes being made when former Prime Minister David Lange had his stomach stapled.

She added that jokes were also made about other large politicians, including Gerry Brownlee.

Awatere Huata is accused of using $82,000 of taxpayers' money - given to the Pipi Foundation to help children learn to read - for personal expenses, including having her stomach stapled and to pay her children's school fees.

Under questioning in court, she said she saved almost $20,000 for the operation over 2 1/2 years by taking cash from her and her husband's account and hiding it in a safe.

When asked why she did not tell her husband, Wi Huata, who is also facing fraud charges, Awatere Huata said he did not believe the operation would work or that it was needed.

After the surgery, she told a woman's magazine and newspapers that her weight loss was due to diet and exercise. She said the reporters were women who had also been "battling weight for a long time".

"I apologise to all those women who thought I did it by willpower. I didn't," she said. "Mind you, it took a lot of willpower to save all that money."

Awatere Huata has been accused of asking a former electoral assistant to lie about where funds came from for bills such as school fees.

Asked by defence lawyer Guyon Foley if this was true, she said no and that her husband often provided the money for the fees.

Earlier in the day, Awatere Huata described how she had auditioned for but turned down a scholarship at the London School of Opera.

She auditioned after her father, Arapeta Awatere, was jailed for life in 1969. He had been convicted of murdering his mistress' lover.

Awatere Huata established the Pipi Foundation in 1999 with a four-minute reading programme. It was given more than $800,000 in government money over three years.

Yesterday, she showed the court a new reading programme she was working on for Maori children called Ezireo.

The case

Donna Awatere Huata: Six charges of fraud and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Wi Huata: Four charges of fraud and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Awatere Huata's lawyers opened their defence yesterday in the Auckland District Court.