Newshub can reveal the Prime Minister's staff knew the Education Minister's office was holding up the release of official attendance data.
The saga has seen Jan Tinetti hauled off to Parliament's court.
Tinetti is a minister under pressure - and a minister keeping quiet.
Facing questions about the saga, Tinetti said: "I have already said I am not commenting on that. I wonder if anyone has got anything else that they want to talk to me about."
That's because Tinetti's in a tangle over whether she misled Parliament over her office having a hand in when officials released term 3 attendance data.
The data was ready for release in December but her office delayed it for two months for the day after Tinetti announced a $74 million truancy package.
"I don't know whether my office was aware of those conversations," said Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday.
Newshub can reveal Hipkins' office was aware of conversations.
In response to a Parliamentary question from National education spokesperson Erica Stanford, Hipkins said that on January 30 his office was advised by Tinetti's office they intended to release the data to be aligned with a truancy package announcement.
"What we do know is Chris Hipkins' office was made aware that the data would be delayed. The question for Chris Hipkins now is what did he personally know?" Stanford told Newshub.
While all this was going on behind the scenes in offices, Tinetti told the House on February 22 it was the Ministry of Education responsible for the data and she didn't have any say over it.
But right after she said that, Tinetti's staff told her they had in fact been talking to the ministry about the data's release.
It took her a week to correct the record.
"I subsequently became aware that my office did have input into the timing of the release of the data," Tinetti said.
Ministers have to correct the record as soon they realise they've stuffed up.
Tinetti was on Tuesday referred to what's dubbed Parliament's highest court - the Privileges Committee - because the Speaker wants a ruling on whether her correction took too long.
The Speaker said the committee needed to determine whether "the delay in correcting an inaccurate statement, in this instance, amounts to contempt".
Hipkins said he had confidence in Tinetti.
"He can absolutely have confidence in me as Education Minister," said Tinetti.
On Thursday, the committee will meet to decide when she faces her day in Parliament's court.
