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The prime minister has defended James Shaw’s decision to approve $ 11.7 million in funding for a Taranaki green school, but Winston Peters says the mistake is characteristic of his inexperienced coalition partner.
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Partners in the coalition government again disagreed today, with Peters saying the Green Party co-leader was inexperienced. Source: 1 NEWS
Today, Mr Shaw, the Deputy Minister of Finance and co-leader of the Greens, apologized for approving the grant for the school in Taranaki with dubious ties and said a solution was being sought.
Shaw’s approval came despite the fact that Green School New Zealand near New Plymouth has yet to receive the necessary education approvals to function as a private school, according to a report from RNZ.
Jacinda Ardern said the project was aimed at job creation and did not come at the expense of any funding for state schools.
“This government has spent more than $ 2 billion in capital support for our state schools, including an investment of $ 400 million in improvements to state schools across the country,” he said.
“That shows how committed we have been to strengthening the quality of our public education infrastructure.
“This project is about job creation, it creates 200 jobs and that is why it was viewed so favorably by the Crown infrastructure process.
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It comes after days of political pressure on James Shaw after he supported a nearly $ 12 million push to help Taranaki’s green school. Source: 1 NEWS
“He advocated for a project that, ultimately, Crown’s infrastructure partners said met all the requirements when it comes to supporting jobs in the region, which this project does.”
Peters said the blame fell solely on Shaw.
“Experience in government affairs. Seriously, it’s very important and no more than now, ”he said.
“This is a mistake from bad prosecutors, poor understanding of the market, and worse still, from a very uncertain applicant.”
The NZ First leader added that, in his opinion, his party had repeatedly prevented the coalition government from pursuing foolish ideas in the past three years.
“You can’t keep making these kinds of mistakes in this business. We have said it several times this year. We have said it during the last three years in the Government ”, he said.
“We stopped the things that were a dumb idea and promoted the things that were a good idea. I know it was not always popular with some media.
“I’m afraid this is a liability case where the blame rests with the person who now says they regret doing it.”