By 3 News online staff
Justice Minister Judith Collins has been under increasing pressure after it was revealed she had dinner with a Chinese border official and bosses of Oravida – a company of which her husband is a director – while on a taxpayer-funded trip to China.
Oravida is a milk exporter and was affected by new Chinese import rules in the wake of the Fonterra botulism scare last year. Opposition parties alleged the dinner, and a subsequent meeting at the company's Shanghai offices, was an attempt to help benefit her husband's company, and therefore a conflict of interest.
2011 - Oravida donates $56,600 to National Party.
October 2013 – Judith Collins opens Oravida's new Auckland headquarters.
October 20, 2013 – Collins has dinner with Oravida bosses Stone Shi and Julia Xu, along with a senior Chinese border official in Beijing, China, while on a tax-funded trip. She claims it was a "personal dinner" and that no business was discussed.
October 23, 2014 - Collins visits Oravida's Shanghai offices "on the way to the airport".
December 23, 2013 – Oravida makes a $30,000 donation to the National Party.
March 4, 2014 – Collins denies dinner was a conflict of interest.
March 12, 2014 – Collins admits she had dinner with Oravida bosses, but calls suggestions she should resign "ridiculous". She is put on her last warning by Prime Minister John Key.
March 18, 2014 – Despite Collins' claims she visited the Oravida offices in Shanghai "for a cup of tea on the way to the airport", it is revealed the company's offices are 30km in the opposite direction.
April 15, 2014 – 3 News reveals Oravida requested help from the Government on Chinese border control issues just weeks before Collins' dinner.
April 17, 2014 – Winston Peters alleges the Chinese official present at the Beijing dinner represented the agency that decides whether imported food products are safe.
May 2, 2014 – There are calls for Collins to resign, following the resignation of MP Maurice Williamson for interfering in a police case involving wealthy Chinese businessman Dongua Liu.
May 4, 2014 – Accusing the media of forcing MP Maurice Williamson to resign his ministerial portfolios, Collins takes a swing at TVNZ journalist Katie Bradford, saying the media should be open to the same scrutiny as politicians.
May 5, 2014 – Collins apologises for attack on Bradford, denies her comment that she could have "recall on all sorts of things" about journalists is a threat.
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