Twyford sticking to his guns
For the second day in a row, beleaguered Transport Minister Phil Twyford appears to have given Parliament incorrect information, crucial documents leaked to Stuff reveal.
But instead of correcting the record as he did on Tuesday, Twyford is now sticking to his guns, denying he gave Parliament incorrect information.
The latest leak revolves around a NZTA assessment of a New Zealand Super Fund proposal to build Auckland’s light rail. Last week Twyford told Parliament that NZTA ‘‘didn’t complete an assessment’’ of the NZ Super Fund’s proposal to build the multi-billion dollar light rail project. The existence of an assessment, denied by Twyford, is significant because NZTA’s former board said it used the document to justify its dismissal of the Super Fund’s plan.
Leaked documents obtained by Stuff show that the NZTA assessment was in fact complete enough to send to the NZ Super Fund for a response.
On November 26, 2018, NZTA completed a document called ‘‘Assessment of the Public Private (PPI) Model’’ which was shared with the Super Fund for its response on November 30.
The fund responded to NZTA on December 6 with a letter complaining that its proposal ‘‘was not properly reflected or apparently understood’’ by NZTA.
Despite the documents appearing to show a completed assessment, Twyford is holding his ground. ‘‘I stand by my statement in the House that NZTA did not complete an assessment of the NZ Infra proposal using standard Treasury methodology, as Chris Bishop asked,’’ Twyford said.
‘‘Aucklanders are simply not interested in tit for tat squabbles
Transport Minister Phil Twyford is denying he gave Parliament incorrect information.
between NZTA and NZ Infra [The Super Fund and it’s Canadian partner],’’ he said.
But a source with first-hand knowledge of the assessment contradicted Twyford’s remarks.
‘‘NZTA did complete assessments of the NZ Infra proposal,’’
the source told Stuff.
This news comes just a day after Twyford was forced to concede that he had given Parliament incorrect information about NZTA board appointments. He had been asked by National transport spokesman Chris Bishop whether he would ‘‘stand by his statement that no one on the New Zealand Transport Agency board asked to stay on?’’, to which he replied ‘‘yes, I do’’.
He had made similar remarks in September, telling Stuff that no one on the board expressed a preference to stay on. Asked whether any board members asked or wanted to stay on, Twyford said on September 19 that, ‘‘no, everyone had reached the end of their terms’’.
But on Tuesday, Twyford was forced to concede that his recollection had failed him since he was first asked about the appointments on September 19. Twyford’s spokeswoman said he had now ‘‘remembered that he had asked Mark Darrow [a former board member] to stay on the board temporarily in the interests of continuity’’.
‘‘The minister will correct the answer in the House at the first opportunity’’’ the spokeswoman said.