Questions were also raised in Parliament as to whether Mr Peters declared his party had received substantial donations from the racing industry, where the Vela brothers are big players, before negotiating the post of racing minister with Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Miss Clark is resisting a single inquiry and suggested relevant authorities, including Inland Revenue, the police and the auditor-general, could make their own inquiries if they wanted.
The Dominion Post reported yesterday the Vela family donated $150,000 from six different accounts over four years up to 2003, but the donations were not declared by New Zealand First because they were under $10,000 and did not have to be.
The newspaper ran a copy of one of the cheques made out for $9995 from the Vela Quota Number 1 account.
It said others had come from the Vela Quota Number 2 account, the Pencarrow Stud, P. J. Vela, P. M. Vela, and Vela Fishing accounts.
Such donations are lawful - both before and after the Electoral Finance Act - but Mr Peters has long campaigned on transparency of political funding.
The Vela brothers are in Europe and could not be contacted.
Asked on Close Up last night if the party had received more than the $9995 in a single cheque, Mr Peters referred to the party's formal disclosure statements required under law.
"Have a look there but you are not going to get beyond the veil and find every grandmother that sent $50 to New Zealand First and have her name all over the paper," he said from Singapore where he is at the Asean Regional Forum meeting.
He said the Dominion Post's allegations were wrong.
The fresh claims follow the embarrassing backdown by Mr Peters on Friday, when he said he had just been told by his lawyer, Brian Henry, that businessman Owen Glenn had paid his lawyers' fee to the tune of $100,000 for the Tauranga electoral petition.
National Party leader John Key mounted a mild attack on Miss Clark in Parliament over the possibility of Mr Peters having broken parliamentary rules.
He said Mr Peters' credibility had been dented but he did not question his integrity.
Miss Clark noted Mr Key had not ruled out working with Mr Peters.
But she appeared to be thrown by a question from Green Party co-leader Russel Norman on non-declaration of possible conflicts of interest.
"Can the prime minister tell us whether the minister of foreign affairs was involved in negotiating the very substantial tax breaks that this Government has delivered to the racing industry.
"If so, in those negotiations did he declare the very substantial donations that New Zealand First had received from the racing industry?"
Miss Clark responded: "The National Party, in its 2005 election policy, announced very big tax breaks for the racing industry and I challenge the National Party . . . to say how much they received from racing interests." - Audrey Young
- Additional reporting by Claire Trevett
