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PM's Presser 6/12/10: Spys, New Faces & The Squeezed Middle
PM's Presser 6/12/10: Spys, New Faces And The Squeezed Middle
Audio & image by Lyndon Hood
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At the Prime Minister's post-cabinet press conference this afternoon, the gallery's main concern was NZSIS Amendment Bill, which was introduced today.
While a regulatory impact statement details the intention of the changes, questioning focused on what the PM wouldn't say about the details and reasoning behind them, and the closed process that the committee discussing the bill will use.
At the beginning of the press conference the PM announced the new chief of the defence force would be Major General Rhys Jones.
He also announced the appointment of Hekia Parata to cabinet, replacing Pansy Wong. Both his choice of Parata for cabinet and the question of further enquiries into Wong's travel allowance spending were discussed, along with the PM's disinclination to have ministers resigning "willy nilly".
Other topics included the possibility of more serious penalties for fleeing police, the Economy (including poor Treasury forecasts, Phil Goff's speech and the Labour leader's referring to his finance spokesman David Cunliffe as 'David Caygill') and New Zealand's aligning with developed countries at the Cancun climate policy negotiations.
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