Smith insisted that at the July 29 meeting he only had a two-sentence agenda note about the department having to make a submission to the Board of Inquiry, and that director-general at the time, Al Morrison, expressed concerns about whether the department was going beyond its mandate by addressing water quality issues. When asked what he had been talking about to officials regarding the submission on July 29 if it was not the draft submission, he said: “There was no mention to me in the report of a draft submission. I did not know of the existence of the draft submission until such time as Tuesday this week.” He had asked for more information and to see the final submission, he said, and two days later received the short final submission plus a 20-page briefing note. The final submission does not contest the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s proposed plan change for water quality nutrient limits. An email trail released by the department shows that after Johnston emailed colleagues to say the minister was concerned, one official had replied: “I am a bit concerned that from a managers perspective the issue about whether we should be involved in the Plan Change.”
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 20:08:03 +0000
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