A stoush has broken out between Labour and the Greens over the contentious Green School funding, and James Shaw may need to dust off another apology for Chris Hipkins.
The Education Minister has stopped just short of accusing Shaw of lying but says the Green Party co-leader and Associate Finance Minister has mischaracterised his words.
Shaw said in a Zoom meeting with Green Party members last week that Hipkins verbally signed off on the controversial Green School funding.
"He was ok with it so he did sort of give, at least, a verbal sign off to the project," Shaw said in the video.
But Hipkins says that wasn't the case.
"No, look, I think that would mischaracterise the conversation," he said on Thursday.
Shaw even says in the video, "Chris is not one of the Budget ministers so he wasn't intimately involved in the decision".
Hipkins may be a minister of many things but he's not responsible for the $11.7 million in infrastructure funding the privately-run Green School got.
When asked if he thought Shaw wasn't telling the truth about the verbal sign-off claim, Hipkins said, "Look, he can ultimately explain his thinking and his reasoning".
Newshub has been told Shaw stands by his commentary on that Zoom call.
National Party leader Judith Collins says someone needs to own up.
"The big thing is that someone's not telling the truth so they need to actually decide which one it is and then let us all know," she said.
Once again Shaw refused to be interviewed.
He tried to avoid the media on Wednesday too. When Newshub tracked him down he said he had apologised to Hipkins for strong-arming ministers for the funding.
"Yes, I have... Specifically to Chris Hipkins and to Grant Robertson," Shaw said.
Shaw may need to dust off another apology for Hipkins. Given that infrastructure funding was not the Education Minister's dosh to dish out, he simply couldn't have given it any kind of sign-off.
