Further to my post yesterday on Gerry Brownlee's bullshit on milestones and targets for closing the gap with Australia, I've been contacted by a source within the government, who says:
I can confirm that during the period you are referring to - roughly speaking, the winter and fall of 2009 - there was no discussion of or advice given on targets for closing the income gap with Australia. The 15 Sept Cabinet paper, which details the growth paths of GDP and exports needed to achieve the Government's goals, is the closest thing that exists.Of course, this doesn't rule out him having asked for advice on targets sometime between then and his claims in Parliament - but then he would have been obligated to provide that advice in response to my OIA request. Which means that he's either ignoring the OIA for no apparent reason, or he lied to Parliament by claiming to have targets and milestones when he did not. So, which is it?In short, Minister Brownlee did not ask for advice on specific targets or milestones.
