Parliament is investigating whether senior government officials misled lawmakers about a failed $33 million immigration technology project.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) officials, including chief executive Nic Blakeley, told a parliamentary committee that a biometric upgrade project was still being worked on. In fact, it had already been cancelled. Labour MP Phil Twyford identified the false information as having been given in 2024, according to Stuff.

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said she and previous ministers were also given wrong information about the project. That suggests the problem ran deeper than just one misleading statement to Parliament, according to Stuff.

Why Parliament is taking this seriously

When Parliament refers something to its Privileges Committee, it is a major step. The committee has one of Parliament's strongest tools: it can hold government officials directly to account for misleading MPs. Most of the time, MPs complain to ministers, and the minister is supposed to fix it. This committee can act when officials mislead Parliament itself.

The claim is straightforward: officials told the education and workforce select committee the project was being fixed up when it had actually been scrapped. The 1News report covers this claim. The biometric project was meant to upgrade the immigration system. It cost $33 million and failed before the current government came to power. But the false information was given in 2024, when the National-led coalition was running the government.

What the minister says

Immigration Minister Stanford says she and her predecessors were lied to as well. That means the problem was likely inside MBIE, not a one-off mistake by one official.

This matters for what happens next. If ministers themselves were in the dark, the investigation will look at whether MBIE officials were deliberately hiding things from both Parliament and their own political bosses. RNZ has discussed similar cases and whether MPs set a good enough example themselves when it comes to telling the truth to Parliament.

What could happen

Finding someone guilty of misleading Parliament does not mean going to jail. The worst penalty Parliament can give is a fine. But for the chief executive of a large government ministry, being found to have misled Parliament would be very damaging to reputation and authority.

Winston Peters said that officials who mislead Parliament should face jail time. But Stuff noted that Peters previously backed a law change that would make a fine the only possible penalty.

Parliamentary committees rely on officials to be truthful. They cannot cross-examine witnesses the way a court does, and they cannot force anyone to explain themselves thoroughly. This case shows how much depends on people telling the truth when they give evidence to Parliament.

What the committee has to figure out is whether the officials deliberately lied, were careless, or were simply passing on bad information from elsewhere in their ministry. That answer will affect both what the committee decides and what consequences the officials face.