Heat on Hawkins to front up on leaky buildings

The National Party’s pushing for Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins to be called to give evidence at the select committee hearing on the leaky buildings crisis.

“I’ve written to the chair of the Government Administration Select Committee, Labour’s Diane Yates, asking for the Minister to clarify his recent comments about when and what he knew of the crisis,” says National’s Housing spokesman Wayne Mapp.

“The Minister has previously given the Committee a briefing in the first session.

“Given the questions that have been raised as to what information the Building Industry Authority gave the Minister, I am sure it would be in everyone’s interests if these were clarified,” Dr Mapp says in his letter.

“When the Minister signed two letters prepared by his Department on advice from the BIA in August and September 2001, he can’t pretend that he did not have official knowledge of the crisis.

“Damning stories have also been appearing in newspapers since the late 1990’s and as the minister responsible for the BIA these should have been enough to alert George Hawkins to the problem,” says Dr Mapp.

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