Phil Heatley National Party Housing Spokesman

11 April 2006

HNZ: Serious questions remain unanswered

National's Housing spokesman, Phil Heatley, says some very serious questions remain unanswered in the Housing NZ 'conspiracy of silence' fiasco.

"Does Housing Minister Chris Carter accept Housing NZ Chairman Pat Snedden's refusal to comment on whether the CEO knew of the gagging clause and the accounting issues that led to it?

"Does the Minister think it's reasonable that the CEO would not be aware of these issues given that she had signed it off?

"Does he accept that the gagging clause was an 'error of judgment', as stated by Mr Snedden on radio this morning, and not a Government agency trying to stymie an individual's democratic right to talk to members of Parliament?

"Given that the board has known of these very serious allegations since September, why did it raise them with Mr Carter only last week as a result of media inquiries?

"And, in light of this, how can the Minister continue to have confidence in the board?"

ENDS

© Scoop Media