There's growing accusations the previous Government was disingenuous on finances.

The Government books were opened in September in the pre-election reveal - but Finance Minister Nicola Willis says she is now surprised how many projects' funding is about to expire.

Willis says the true scale and urgency of the situation wasn't made clear to her before she started.

"The effect of the Government not having funded these projects is that it made their books look better than they might otherwise have looked."

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