A claim that authorities are concealing thousands of parent applications from China in an attempt to manipulate the real numbers has been described as “simply rubbish” by Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse.

NZ First leader Winston Peters told parliament the Immigration Department was holding 5500 applications.

“The evidence shows a stockpile, enabling the minister to say that application numbers are halved,” he said.

Mr Peters was questioning Prime Minister John Key, who said he doubted the numbers Mr Peters was using.

Mr Woodhouse later issued a statement saying Mr Peters’ claims were “nonsensical, simply rubbish, baseless and confused”.

He said the Immigration Department could only issue 5000 parent category visas each year.

Changes made last year had tightened the parent category and altered the criteria.

“Applications from parents who have higher income sponsors, or who bring a guaranteed income or funds, are being processed faster than other applications,” he said.

“Because more people are interested in applying under the parent category than there are places available, applications can take a while to be processed.”

Mr Woodhouse said there was nothing sinister going on and it was disingenuous of Mr Peters to suggest there was.

Mr Peters has previously complained about the number of Chinese who are coming to live in New Zealand under the government’s family reunion policy.