It seems extraordinary that a Minister with responsibility for $3 billion of spending can suddenly recall more than 60 meetings he’d forgotten to mention earlier, National’s Economic and Regional Development spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“Shane Jones has ducked detailed questions about how he’s been spending the Provincial Growth Fund. Accountability and transparency have been missing in action over the PGF, which was part of the horse trading that went into the coalition Government.

“It is completely implausible that the Minister did not notice when signing off on his answers to written questions that there were significant volumes of meetings missing.

“This occurred over the course of seven months and the 61 errors took one month to be officially corrected after my office discovered discrepancies in his original answers.

“How can we have any confidence in what the Minister says when so many statements are proven to be inaccurate. It is an absolutely mockery of Parliamentary process and is laughing in the face of the Prime Minister’s commitment to openness and transparency.

We should remember that Mr Jones has been cavalier when challenged about the clear Northland bias in the PGF’s allocations so far. ‘To the victor goes the spoils’, is how he justifies it.

“Mr Jones must not think the dismissal of Clare Curran was justified when he thinks he is above the standard expected by the Prime Minister.”

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