If the government had responded properly to parliamentary questions from the Alliance last year they would have know about the problems with travel expenditure at the NZQA.

Alliance Education spokesperson asked on the 30th of October last year
the then Minister Wyatt Creech how much was spend on travel and accommodation by staff of the NZQA.

Mr Creech refused to supply any details of travel costs. He stated that the Chief Executive was responsible for all expenditure within the organisation and that all travel costs are required to be for a 'demonstrably justifiable' purpose.

"If those travel costs were demonstrably justified on the 30th of October last year why do we now have an investigation?," Alliance Education spokesperson Dr. Liz Gordon said.

"Mr Creech either didn't bother to find out about the extent of the travel costs or he deliberately ignored the irregularities. Either way he and his government has been shown once again to be negligent.

"There are other issues with Dr Blackmur which the government needs to investigate. Am I still the only person in Wellington waiting for replies to enquiries about the NZQA ?," Dr Liz Gordon said.

Copies of the parliamentary question can be obtained from Liz Gordon's office on (04) 4706668.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>