New Zealand First's Associate Health Minister Casey Costello Photo: Mark Mitchell / NZ Herald
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has come to the defence of the Associate Health Minister Casey Costello after she wrongly told RNZ she had not sought advice on freezing increases to tobacco tax.
Documents show the New Zealand First minister did ask the Health Ministry for advice on that matter in late December.
Luxon has chalked it up as a possible mistake.
"I think the reality is that, you know, she asked for a range of advice, she gets a lot of advice. She's a new minister. And I just say to you, at the end of the day, we've got an increase in the excise tax exactly as we should have and in line with what we got."
He said he would not characterise the error as dishonesty, and agreed it was "possibly the reality of it" that as a new minister she had simply got confused in an interview.
"The reality is, however, that the paper that came towards cabinet was very straightforward. It was very simple conversation. It was an increase in the excise tax, as you would expect, and as we've expected, in previous years."
He told reporters his government would not be pausing increases to tobacco tax, and had increased it again in a decision before Christmas.
"We had a Cabinet Paper that came to Cabinet before Christmas, proposed an increase in excise tax," he said. "It was a pretty simple conversation - it was implemented, decided and done.
"Ministers get advice on lots of different things. They ask for advice on lots of different things. The bottom line is a paper came to Cabinet very, very quickly, in a matter of days, when it was needed. And we resolved it - sorted and done."
Labour's Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said Costello's statements did not add up, and she should release the document to prove her case.
"If she was able to explain herself one should be generous when people are just starting in the job - but the easiest way for her to explain herself is to release the document and show she was telling the truth."
Later in the day, Costello said it was a "simple issue".
"I circled a yes on the implications of an excise tax freeze in amongst a whole range of other things," she said.
"I was asked a specific question about whether I had sought specific advice on the excise tax issue. I hadn't sought specific advice, it was just one of the components in a broad range of things and in that specific area it was just asking about the implications if we looked at it.
"So I hadn't sought advice on it specifically."
Asked if she could be trusted, she said: "I think I'm pretty exemplary in terms of integrity".
Health Minister Shane Reti again confirmed his confidence in Costello.
"She retains my confidence," he said. "Because she's a competent minister and she shares the vision we have of driving down smoking rates."
He confirmed she had asked him if she could take on the responsibility over the smokefree legislation.