Curran in spotlight over phone call to Griffin
IT would have been better for someone other than Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran to call Radio New Zealand chairman Richard Griffin over his reappearance at a select committee, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
Ms Curran has denied reports she suggested Mr Griffin should stay away from the select committee but says she left a message on his phone saying he did not have to appear in person.
‘‘After receiving some advice from the Office of the Leader of the House, I made a phone call to him suggesting that if he couldn’t attend in person, that the record [to] be corrected could be corrected by letter,’’ Ms Curran said yesterday.
Newstalk ZB reported Mr Griffin had received a suggestion he stay away from the select com mittee, which has recalled him and RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson over the Carol Hirschfeld affair.
Ms Ardern, who has spoken to Ms Curran, said her minister’s primary concern was that the record be corrected as soon as possible.
‘‘She’s advised me that when she found out that Radio New Zealand were no longer able to appear at the committee, her concern was that the record be corrected as soon as possible, so that she contacted the chair to advise of an alternative option to make sure that was able to happen.’’
She conceded there were other ways Ms Curran could have passed on that message.
‘‘Under the circumstances, it would have been cleaner to have either someone from the select committee office or the Leader of the House pass on that advice.
‘‘Ultimately, though, the minister’s focus was on getting the record corrected.
‘‘It’s something she’d been criticised for in the past. When she found out they were already scheduled to come in the follow ing Thursday, she left it at that.’’
Mr Thompson and Mr Griffin will reappear before the economic development, science and innovation select committee tomorrow after inadvertently misleading the committee earlier by saying it was a coincidence Ms Hirschfeld and Ms Curran had bumped into each other in Wellington’s Astoria cafe.
Ms Curran has been in the spotlight following the resignation of Ms Hirschfeld as RNZ’s head of content last week after it was revealed Ms Hirschfeld had repeatedly lied to RNZ manage ment about the meeting in December last year.
Ms Hirschfeld had insisted it was a chance encounter but it was found later it was instigated by Ms Curran and arranged between the pair. Ms Hirschfeld was not authorised to meet the minister and her final admission led to her resignation.
Ms Curran said she could not recall whether she had made a suggestion or implied that Mr Griffin not appear in person.
‘‘I told him what my advice was. I didn’t issue an instruction. My advice was that he write to the committee if he couldn’t attend in person and correct the record at the earliest opportunity.
‘‘I thought it was really important that given the state of affairs around this particular issue that the record be corrected as soon as possible.’’
Mr Griffin told The New Zealand Herald yesterday a suggestion had been made that he should not appear in front of the committee in person but instead write a letter of apology. He said the suggestion applied only to him, not Mr Thompson. — NZME