Radio NZ bosses issue a statement to the Select Committee over misleading them.

In an extraordinary move MPs are demanding a voicemail Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran left on RNZ chair Richard Griffin's phone.

This news comes as stark differences have emerged between Curran and Griffin's versions of the events that led to the resignation of Carol Hirschfeld, and its aftermath.

Griffin was in select committee on Thursday morning attempting to clear up the ongoing saga concerning a meeting between Curran and Hirschfeld.

Jo Moir/Stuff Clare Curran says she does not recall telling RNZ board chair Richard Griffin not to come to select committee.

Griffin told the committee that Curran left a voicemail on his phone last week which implied he should write to the select committee to correct the record instead of showing up - saying she was under the impression he couldn't make it last Thursday. He confirmed he still held the voicemail but refused to play it.

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*Clare Curran apologised to PM over Hirschfeld meeting

*Recap: RNZ bosses to set record straight on Curran/Hirschfeld meeting

"The implication was as far as I was concerned that it would be far more satisfactory to all concerned to just put the letter on the table and leave it at that," Griffin said.

SUPPLIED Labour MP Clare Curran said her office contacted RNZ twice to correct the record. But Griffin says the second contact was actually about Question Time.

Curran said that she left the voicemail to say he should write to the committee only if he could not make it in order to correct the record as soon as possible - not that he shouldn't show up at all.

The select committee are now writing to RNZ to request the voicemail under powers conferred by standing orders. If they are refused they can ask the Speaker to legally require it be handed over.

There are serious differences between Curran's account of the events that led to Hirschfeld's resignation and Griffin's.

ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF RNZ bosses fronted up to a select committee to correct the record after they inadvertently misled them on March 1.

Griffin appeared before the same committee on March 1 and inadvertently misled them, telling them the December 5 meeting between Curran and the RNZ content manager Hirschfeld had been coincidental and not planned.

It has emerged that it was not - Curran had in fact planned the meeting with Hirschfeld the month before.

Curran herself has never said the meeting was coincidental but Hirschfeld repeatedly told her bosses it was. Hirschfeld has now resigned over misleading them.

Curran's office contended last week that they had contacted RNZ's office twice during March to set the record straight, and that this had been done through the proper processes.

"On two occasions on the first of March and the 22nd of March my office contacted RNZ to raise the issue of the inconsistency between Ms Hirschfeld's account and my own," Curran said last week.

But today Griffin released a timeline to the select committee which describes the March 22 contact as not in fact a correction.

ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF Melissa Lee quizzes the RNZ heads.

The March 1 call was between someone in the minister's office and a staffer at RNZ - later revealed to be in the comms team. That was not escalated to Griffin but did make it to chief executive Paul Thompson.

Thompson told the committee this was "secondhand information" and after questioning Hirschfeld again he continued to trust her version of events.

"This was not the proper process," Thompson said, saying Curran should have approached Griffin directly.

ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF Richard Griffin (right) and Paul Thompson address the committee.

Three weeks later on March 21 Griffin told the committee that he heard a suggestion that the integrity of himself and Thompson as at "serious risk" thanks to what they had said on March 1. He did not say who he heard this from.

On March 22 Griffin said he received a telephone call just before Question Time from a staffer in the Minister's office advising him the meeting was likely to come up in question time and that Minister was going to say more about it.

Griffin said the staffer was clear the Minister expected RNZ would have "no comment" on the matter.

According to the timeline he then asked if that meant the meeting had been planned, which the staffer confirmed. He then asked if any consideration had been given to the fact that meant he had misled a select committee. The staffer "agreed that was the case but this had not been addressed."

The next day, Griffin said that he called the Minister directly.

"She responded defensively and said she could talk to anyone she wants," Griffin wrote.

"When pressed she acknowledged the information was correct and she had initiated the meeting. The Minister then asked 'What is your source?' I asked her why she hadn't informed me sooner. In response, she said I should have asked her."

Griffin brought QC lawyer Hugh Rennie to the very tense committee meeting.

At one point Labour's Deborah Russell called into question Griffin's allegiances as he had worked as a "National Party press secretary" - for Prime Minister Jim Bolger in the 1990s.

"I worked as a press secretary for the Prime Minister," Griffin replied furiously.

Labour's Paul Eagle asked why Griffin had given National's Melissa Lee a heads up call three minutes before announcing Hirschfeld's resignation.

Griffin said this was simply "courtesy" - a subject he suspected was quite foreign to politicians.

Eagle asked about the difference between "collusion and courtesy" - a question Griffin again said was "ridiculous."

Curran stood by her version of events.

"My primary concern, and that of my staff, was that RNZ had misled the select committee by repeating claims from Carol Hirschfeld that it was a chance meeting," Curran said.

"I am assured that my staff did not say, on either of those dates, that 'they expected there would be no comment from RNZ'."

"I'm also assured the office never said to Mr Griffin that 'we would like RNZ to stay out of it'."

"My office told RNZ and Mr Griffin that it was a pre-arranged meeting and that if asked I would confirm that because that was the truth."

Curran is currently in Australia attending the Commonwealth Games and will return on Friday.

The timeline given to the committee.