Labour wants public debate on airport ‘scandal’

Press, 14 March 1984, Page 24

Labour wants public debate on airport ‘scandal’

PA Wellington The Labour Party wants the “scandal” of Auckland Airport’s scrapped hovercraft discussed in public, not sent to a closed Parliamentary select committee. The Minister of Transport, Mr Gair, intends referring the question of the purchase of the crash-fire hovercraft for the airport to the Public Expenditure Select Committee.

Labour’s transport spokesman, Mr Richard Prebble, has written to the committee chairman, Mr lan McLean, asking him “to refuse to allow his select committee to be used to whitewash Mr Gair’s mistakes. “Labour is opposed to this move because the committee’s meetings are in secret,” he said. “The committee cannot examine Ministerial actions

and the committee will report (to Parliament) next year after the elections.” Mr Prebble said that the hovercraft’s purchase cost, the costs of modifications, and the cost of time put into trying to make it work properly meant that more than 51 million of taxpayers’ money had been wasted. Two main questions now ought to be asked: Whether

Mangere airport was safe and, if it was, why the hovercraft was bought? “It is very clear to us that Mr Gair is trying to use the public expenditure committee in order to bury what could be a very embarrassing political issue. “The decision to purchase the hovercraft was not made by the civil servants at Mangere but was in fact a Ministerial decision of George Gair in Wellington.”