M.P. explains why he ruled out inquiry
PA Wellington The chairman of Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee has told Parliament why he felt it was inappropriate to conduct an inquiry into the early Budget release.
Mr Trevor de Cleene (Lab., Palmerston North) told Parliament that as he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance he would be investigating his own Minister. He noted also that another select committee was to hold an inquiry. The Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, had offered to resign when he
learnt the Budget had been released early. That offer was not accepted by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange. Since then Opposition members have sought an inquiry into the issue through a Parliamentary select committee. The chairman of the Government Administration Committee, Ms Fran Wilde (Lab., Wellington Central) has* already said that her committee would investigate, but the House was told that Mr de Cleene’s committee would not.
“As Under-Secretary I thought I could not chair
such an inquiry pursuant to my duties to the Finance and Expenditure Committee,” he said. National’s spokesman on expenditure, Mr M. E. C. Cox (Manawatu), who had pressed for the inquiry, agreed that Mr de Cleene should not have chaired it
"But it is easy enough to move out of the chair of a select committee and it has been done frequently,” Mr Cox said.
He said Mr de Cleene had used his casting vote on the committee to block the move for an inquiry.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860927.2.37
Bibliographic details
Press, 27 September 1986, Page 6
Word Count
246M.P. explains why he ruled out inquiry Press, 27 September 1986, Page 6
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Copyright in all Footrot Flats cartoons is owned by Diogenes Designs Ltd. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise these cartoons and make them available online as part of this digitised version of the Press. You can search, browse, and print Footrot Flats cartoons for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Diogenes Designs Ltd for any other use.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.