Minister says reports missing

Press, 20 August 1984, Page 33

Minister says reports missing

PA Wellington The Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, told Parliament yesterday that he had been unable to obtain any reports on the proposed Ohinewai opencast coalmine and asked the former Minister, Mr W. F. Birch, for an explanation. Speaking during the Imprest Supply debate,. Mr Tizard said he wanted Mr Birch to say what he had done with the documents. “I have asked for all the documents from the Ohinewai project to be revealed by the Mines Division or the Energy Ministry,” he said. “The answer I have had back is that there do not appear to be any formal reports to either the Minister or other departments confirming that they could supply coal on some firm basis.” Mr Birch called out across the chamber, "What poppycock.”

If Mr Tizard could not get the reports he wanted, that was a matter between him and his department, Mr Birch said. Mr Tizard: Is the former Minister in fact going to tell me that there are documents and he has got them? Is he going to tell me there are no documents because he has shredded them or is he going to tell me that there never were documents as my advisers now tell me? Mr Birch last year published a pre-feasibility report on the proposal to use coal from an opencast mine at Ohinewai to supply the nearby New Zealand Steel mill at Glenbrook. Outside the House later, Mr Birch said that when he had vacated his Ministerial office he had taken his own copies of Ohinewai reports, but these would be freely available to Mr Tizard from his department.