Green School Financing: Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones Says Controversial Project Is Not A ‘Pig’s Fist’

The controversial $ 11.7 million grant for an exclusive private school is not a “pig in the grip,” says the Minister of Infrastructure amid continued demands for the funds to be withdrawn.

Shane Jones has endorsed Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s position that the government had a good faith obligation to the Green School after approving its application to be a shovel-ready project.

“I understand that there are members of the Green Party who are warning about buyer’s remorse, but frankly, this is not a situation where I am a pig in the fist.”

Meanwhile, National is asking the government to get advice from the Crown Law on whether it can get out of the deal so taxpayers don’t have to “swallow the rat.”

The decision to award the Green School, which charges up to $ 43,000 a year in fees for international students, nearly $ 12 million has faced significant backlash from schools, unions, the Opposition and members of the Green Party.

The application was one of 150 ready-to-use projects that were signed from the $ 3 billion infrastructure fund in the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund.

Greens co-leader James Shaw advocated as Associate Finance Minister for the school expansion project because he saw it as a green infrastructure opportunity.

It also promised 200 jobs and injecting $ 43 million into the local economy, which would help Taranaki to stop relying on oil and gas.

But Shaw who signed the bill upset several former MPs and Green Party members who saw it as a betrayal of one of the party’s key promises to end public money going to private schools.

In a Zoom meeting with the members on Friday night, Shaw apologized and said that he wouldn’t make the same decision if given another chance.

The nation’s largest education union is calling for funding of nearly $ 12 million to be withdrawn and returned to public schools instead.

The national secretary of the Te Riu Roa Education Institute, Paul Goulter, said that although the finance and infrastructure ministers ruled it out, which he said was “quite definitive,” they did not renounce that call.

“I know that the Taranaki principals and schools are not going to give up either. We will push that point as hard as we can whenever we can.”

But Jones said Robertson was the Matua as finance minister and stood up saying the government did not intend to turn funding 180 degrees.

“This project has proceeded in good faith with the applicants. It was always an infrastructure project and we must move away from ideological tantrums and focus on the fact that it was carried out by both parties in a spirit of good faith.

“Jobs will be created, infrastructure will be improved.”

National education spokesperson Nicola Willis said there must be transparency about whether there is room to get out of the deal or whether the contract was signed.

Willis said there were also questions about what commitments the government had made on behalf of the taxpayer and what obligations the Green School had to obtain the “extraordinary sum of money.”

“It is a shameful use of your money and if the decision can be reversed without violating the obligations of the Crown, then it should be.”

Willis said the government should seek advice from Crown Law on whether it was too late to back out or whether they were bound by a contract they had to fulfill.

“In short, taxpayers may be forced to swallow the rat. A rat born of the government’s arrogant approach.”

Crown Infrastructure Partners and Green School did not respond to Herald requests for comment yesterday.