A forestry company with close links to New Zealand First planned to apply for up to $95 million under the One Billion Trees programme, which is overseen by New Zealand First minister Shane Jones.
The directors of the company, NZ Future Forest Products, include Brian Henry, Winston Peters' lawyer and New Zealand First's judicial officer, Mr Henry's son David Henry, and Mr Peters' partner, Jan Trotman.
RNZ reported on Friday that the company made an application for at least $1 million in funding from the Provincial Growth Fund, which is also overseen by Mr Jones.
They spent six months discussing it with officials before it was finally knocked back by Labour Ministers at a meeting Mr Jones excused himself from.
Now RNZ can reveal the details of the company's proposal to Te Uru Rakau, or Forestry NZ, for the government to join them in a scheme to convert large amounts of farmland to forestry.
Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton have been looking into this. Kate Newton filed this report.
