Ministry free travel ‘proper’

Press, 29 November 1989, Page 5

Ministry free travel ‘proper’

PA Wellington There was nothing improper about Ministry of Transport staff using a free travel arrangement with Air New Zealand, the Transport Secretary, Mrs Margaret Bazley, says. Claims were made by Mr Maurice Williamson (Nat., Pakuranga), in Parliament last week that the chief inspector of air accidents, Mr Ron Chippindale and his wife improperly accepted free air travel with the airline.

Mrs Bazley said there was some misconception about the free-of-charge arrangement..

“The longstanding practice was for the Government to direct Air New Zealand, as the State-owned national airline, to carry Ministry officials free when their travel involved airline or civil aviation business,” she said. There had been no other claims of improper travel by Ministry staff. Mr Chippindale had twice accepted free travel from Air New Zealand to attend overseas conferences of the international Society of Aircraft Accident Investigators. “His wife’s fare was paid on one occasion,” Mrs Bazley said. claims that he had made a trip overseas involving the marketing of electric power conductors were “obviously” the result of a typing error which

should have read “marking.” “The trip related to inquiries made by the chief inspector into overseas practices into marking of electric power wires following an accident in Tory Channel in which an aircraft collided with power lines that had been erected over the water,” Mrs Bazley said. “There was no question of holidays or free rides for officials or relatives, and Air New Zealand themselves carefully monitored such travel requests.”

With the introduction of a more competitive aviation environment, the policy had been reviewed in 1985 and since then little use had been made of the arrangement, she said. The issue of Mr Chippindale’s travel had been raised during the recent examination of the Ministry’s estimates in select committee.

A specific claim that Mr and Mrs Chippindale had taken one their personal recreation had been investigated and it was found Mr Chippindale travelled on authorised Ministry business and his wife paid her own fare, Mrs Bazley said. She had been asked to supply details of all free travel by Ministry officials since 1979 and her own investigation had found it was all “properly authorised and legitimate.”