Clayton
COSGROVE

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Spokesperson

Waimakariri MP

28 March 2011 MEDIA STATEMENT

Brownlee has changed his story on Martyn Dunne at least twice

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has changed his story at least twice on whether top civil servant and former military man Martyn Dunne is to be made interim head of the Government’s new earthquake recovery authority, and the truth may not have come out yet, says Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove.

Clayton Cosgrove, Labour’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery spokesperson and Waimakariri MP, said: “This has become a fiasco, and Canterbury people are the losers.

“Radio New Zealand says Gerry Brownlee told a senior reporter last week that Martyn Dunne was to get the job. I believe that reporter.

“On Friday Civil Defence Controller Steve Brazier confirmed Martyn Dunne’s appointment when he briefed Christchurch MPs. Where would he have got that information from other than from the Government?

“But by the weekend television presenter Paul Holmes was saying Martyn Dunne wouldn’t take the job because he can’t get on with Mr Brownlee, and now Mr Brownlee himself is saying that everyone got ahead of themselves and Martyn Dunne hasn’t been in the frame,” Clayton Cosgrove said.

“If that’s the case, why did Gerry Brownlee tell Radio New Zealand the opposite last week?

“Maybe Paul Holmes is right, but more worrying is the possibility that Martyn Dunne has been heavily involved in drawing up plans for the new authority, and doesn’t like what he has seen.

“Whatever is the truth, the losers in this whole fiasco are Cantabrians,” Clayton Cosgrove said. “They are not being consulted properly on what the Government intends to do, and they can have little confidence, given Gerry Brownlee’s contradictory ‘yes he is, no he’s not’ statements, that the Government has any clear idea where it’s going anyway.

“The people of Canterbury know what needs to be done. They should be heeded.”

ENDS

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