No plans to resign from Govt: Tinetti
EDUCATION Minister Jan Tinetti says she has no plans to resign from Government, after a ‘‘tough’’ week in which she has been summonsed by the privileges committee.
The committee, comprising senior MPs and chaired by AttorneyGeneral David Parker, has been tasked with investigating whether Ms Tinetti’s delay in correcting a statement to the House amounted to a ‘‘contempt of Parliament’’ or breach of privilege.
The accusation revolved around Ms Tinetti claiming in February she had no responsibility for the release of attendance data, but was told later that day by staff that was an error.
However, she failed to correct the record until early May, when the Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe wrote to her to explain she needed to do so.
On Tuesday, Mr Rurawhe announced the matter was being referred to the committee — on Thursday, Mr Parker, the Government’s lawyer, said Ms Tinetti had been sent a letter containing some followup questions, to which a response is expected by Tuesday.
The committee planned to hear from her in person next Thursday.
In Queenstown yesterday, Ms Tinetti said she would not talk about the issue before the committee while that process was ongoing. However, when asked if she intended to resign, she responded: ‘‘No.’’
In the resort to attend the Rural Teaching Principals’ Conference, Ms Tinetti told the
Otago Daily Times she used to be a rural and teaching principal in Southland, and she welcomed the opportunity to engage with the conference delegates to understand ‘‘where we can be helping a little bit [more]’’, to make their jobs easier ‘‘so they can be the best’’.
After speaking at the conference, Ms Tinetti visited Queenstown Primary School and attended an assembly, where she helped present Principal and Deputy Principal’s Awards, and was herself presented with the school’s highest award, Mahi Pai.
Queenstown Primary School will finally begin an almost total rebuild of the school on Thursday, announced three years ago, which will include installation of 10 relocatable classrooms from Wakatipu High School, and the subsequent demolition of several old buildings.
Meanwhile, discussions were still continuing over the future education needs in the Wakatipu, particularly given Wakatipu High School had now reached its site capacity and once the school hit its pupil capacity of 1800, expected to occur by the end of this decade, another high school — or a second high school campus — would be required.
Ms Tinetti said Queenstown had been identified as one of several ‘‘areas of growth’’ and while she was unable to go into detail, when it came to the high school issue, ‘‘nothing is off the table’’.
The car involved in a fatal accident at the intersection of State Highway 8B and Barry Ave, Cromwell yesterday.
One person died in the singlevehicle crash at the entrance to Cromwell.
Emergency services were called to the scene about 11.25am.
The victim, understood to be an 85yearold woman and sole occupant of the car, died at the scene.
The road was closed and detours put in place while the police crash investigation unit examined the scene.
Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were under way, a police spokesman said.
It is the second crash to close the new roundabout at the intersection of State Highway 8B and Barry Ave after a rubbish truck tipped over last month.