Peters praises effort for jailed NZ man

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has rejected claims by the Auckland-based parents of a New Zealander arrested in Poland that the Government should be doing more to help their son.

Bruce Robinson has been under temporary arrest in Katowice since February, charged with deliberately causing the danger of a catastrophe and unintentionally causing a catastrophe.

Mr Robinson is managing director of Expomedia, the London-based parent company of International Katowice Fairs (MTK), which part-owned the building whose snow-laden roof collapsed in January, killing 65 people.

On Tuesday night's Close Up programme on TV One Dave and Carol Robinson said they were not impressed with Mr Peters' efforts on their son's behalf.

"I consider that our Foreign Minister is completely out of his depth and I think our Prime Minister should intervene and contact the British authorities and get them on the case," Dave Robinson said.

The Robinsons had written to Prime Minister Helen Clark for help, a letter she referred to Mr Peters.

Mr Peters yesterday said he understood the Robinson family's distress, but Foreign Affairs staff and New Zealand's consul in Warsaw had worked tirelessly on Bruce Robinson's behalf.

"Our people in Poland are flat out on the case now," he told the Herald.

"They're doing all they possibly can, they were facilitating the parents' visit there and seeing how many times the parents can visit their son. This is a different country. There's nothing more, I believe, that we could possibly do."

He said the authorities had granted Mr Robinson privileges they had not granted to British prisoners, adding, "I'm not going to criticise my staff: I think they have gone to extraordinary lengths."

Mr Peters said he had also considered visiting Mr Robinson while he was in Poland in July, but had been unable to fit it into his schedule.

In Parliament yesterday Mr Peters tabled papers which showed Mr Robinson had been visited four times by Foreign Affairs staff, the first time being on February 24, three days after his arrest. On later visits Foreign Affairs staff brought Mr Robinson emails from his family, newspapers, fruit and sweets. He was also allowed to telephone family.

"Unlike the standard policy of a visit every quarter ... we have been there four times, including a fifth time attending the bail hearing, which he was not at," Mr Peters said. "This is all by August. That is way outside our guidelines."

Mr Peters called the Close Up story "rotten malice frankly, but not on behalf of the family".

Mr Robinson is still on remand, awaiting a review of his case next month.