Resignations does not resolve those issues : Ardern stops short of sacking Speaker Mallard Newshub 4 hrs ago
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Parliament is in clean-up mode after the wheels came off entirely during an explosive late-night session.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is fuming and scolded House Speaker Trevor Mallard on Wednesday for re-litigating sexual assault allegations against a former parliamentary staffer who he d already falsely accused of rape.
But the Prime Minister stopped short of sacking Mallard to the horror of the National Party which has labelled him a disgrace and a bully.
There was barely a peep from Mallard on Wednesday when Newshub approached him for a response. He said he s prevented by court suppression order and mediation agreement from commenting outside the parliamentary process.
On Tuesday night, under the legal protection of parliamentary privilege, it was a very different story. The member might think that serious sexual assault and not supporting the victims of it is funny, but I don t, Mr Bishop, Mallard said, doubling down on allegations of sexual assault against a former parliamentary staffer he d already falsely accused of rape.
The Speaker has been avoiding talking about the man who successfully sued Mallard for defamation, costing the taxpayer $300,000. His career has been ruined; his life has been ruined, said National MP Michael Woodhouse.
Mallard responded: That man s life was destroyed when he sexually assaulted a woman.
But those projects were given only high-level costings by Waka Kotahi-NZ Transport Agency. Over the last year, Waka Kotahi has been doing more detailed estimates of how much the roads will cost, a process called “baselining”. Those baselines were recently delivered to Transport Minister Michael Wood, who is now considering what they mean for the continued viability of the 22 projects that make up the transport side of the $12b upgrade programme. Some of the costings could be considerably higher than estimated last year. Asked if he would commit to following through on the projects as they were announced in the upgrade programme, Wood dodged the question. Instead, he said that the Government would be making decisions in the future.
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