John Carter MP National Party Civil Defence Spokesman

30 March 2006

Bungling Barker must provide papers

National Party Civil Defence spokesman John Carter says Rick Barker must provide the evidence to show he's done his homework on the planned restructuring at Civil Defence.

"When Labour talks about building a bigger bureaucracy National is always sceptical. The Minister must release all the papers showing the cost of the change and the benefits it will deliver to New Zealanders.

"Civil Defence is too important to be restructured on a hunch."

Mr Carter also voiced sympathy for retiring Civil Defence director John Norton "who has covered the bungling Minister's backside for the last time.

"It's taken 14 months for the Minister to do anything in response to a hugely critical report which said Civil Defence was ill equipped to deal with a large scale disaster.

"This is a Minister who could not even remember his own Department had done a report on Agent Orange.

"Mr Barker and the New Zealand public should thank their lucky stars there hasn't been a disaster while Labour's been fast asleep on the job," says Mr Carter.

ENDS

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