Sources have leaked details of the army's training for Iraq over the past two weeks.
But while Mr Brownlee's office has confirmed training is under way for Iraq on a "contingency" basis, the minister himself has continued to deny that.
"There is not training being undertaken for potential deployment to Iraq but the member will know from his own time as Minister for Defence that NZ military always trains for the contingency they might be asked to do anything", Mr Brownlee told Parliament yesterday in response to a question from Labour defence spokesman Phil Goff.
Mr Brownlee's reasoning appears to be that as the Government has not yet made a formal decision to deploy to Iraq, any training being undertaken is not for that purpose.
Mr Mark, a former army officer, asked Mr Brownlee, given no decision had been made to deploy, "why then is the army moving all communications regarding the Iraqi deployment to secure networks and deleting orders previously sent. Are they just covering the tracks for the minister?"
Mr Brownlee said he couldn't answer that question.
"All I know is there is no government decision, there has been no government instruction to prepare for deployment to Iraq."
In a follow-up question Mr Mark questioned whether it was fair for troops who were likely to be sent to Iraq early next year to be prevented by the army from discussing their deployment with family over the Christmas break.
Mr Brownlee once again said there had been no decision
He added a barb to his response, saying Mr Mark "might think he knows everything because he's got a few mates from his days when he was a storeman in the army".
Mr Mark took issue and raised a point of order to clarify he was never a storeman.
By Adam Bennett of the New Zealand Herald
