BILLION DOLLAR MEMORY LAPSE

If you asked someone to look after $4 billion for you, you’d think you might remember it. Not if you’re Phil Twyford apparently. For six weeks he’s said no one from NZTA’s former board which was ‘‘refreshed and refocused’’ on September 19 had asked or been asked to stay on.

That day he was asked by Stuff if anyone had wanted to stay on, or had been asked to stay on. He said no.

The NZ Herald ran a similar story with Twyford again denying people had been asked to stay. Last week in Parliament he repeated his denial.

But what a difference a day makes. When confronted with information that said he had in fact asked board members to stay, and had begun reappointing them, the minister’s beleaguered memory improved remarkably.

Yesterday afternoon the story changed slightly: the minister’s office thought the story was completely wrong, but needed to check – just to make sure.

Just after 7pm, we had an answer: the minister was wrong. One board member, Mark Darrow, had been asked to go on the board again, and had expressed a willingness to do so – a very different story to the one Twyford had been telling for nearly six weeks.

Twyford’s office is now suggesting his appointment was blocked somewhere in the process, leading one to assume coalition partners didn’t want him on the board.

Now, this is quite important.

NZTA’s board is one of the most important organisations in the country. It looks after $4 billion worth of spending on road building, maintenance, public transport and safety each year, but it affects much more than this.

NZTA is one of the leading infrastructure providers in New Zealand. That $4b budget is nearly equal to the $5b spent on infrastructure across all of New Zealand’s local councils last year.

For that reason, board appointments are pretty important. They’re the guardians not just of the physical parts of our transport system, but one of the key levers we have to keep the economy running.

There are only seven members on the board. Seven members to look after $4b worth of construction – not to mention their other role as transport regulator.

If it’s true that Twyford forgot he’d asked someone to be a guardian of that $4b pot of money, that starts to look pretty negligent. No one begrudges a minister for not knowing niche details of their portfolio, but if you’d asked someone to be on the board of your key agency – of $4b – you think you’d remember that.

Twyford is already on thin ice in the transport portfolio. It’s clear key figures in the main agency he overseas are losing or have already lost confidence in him.

He has an obligation to answer direct questions about this. It’s no bad thing to jack up fuel taxes for important projects, but the public is right to demand answers if it appears the projects those taxes fund are delayed.

For Twyford’s sake and ours, it would be good if he answers them correctly.