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PM's Press Conference 10/7/17: Abuse Inquiry Petition
PM's Press Conference: State Care Abuse Inquiry Petition
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Prime Minister Bill English opened today's post-cabinet press conference repeating his praise of property developer Mark Dunajtschik's generosity in gifting a new fifty bed children's hospital to Wellington. This allowed a construction related segue to the topic of region development fund announcements, which will be made for a number of regions this week. English also noted the Lions tour as having demonstrated New Zealand's ability to host large events.
The bulk of questions focused on calls for a inquiry into abuse and neglect in state care. The Prime Minister cited recent efforts to improve child care and the current process for dealing with individual claims as evidence the government shared goals with the complainants. He said he had not seen what an inquiry would achieve beyond these, and that and inquiry would distract and draw resources from these priorities.
Other matters discussed
included Iraq's declaration of victory in Mosul (NZ has yet
to receive any requests for reconstruction assistance),
Winston Peters' call for wool carpet in government buildings
(the PM enthused on the qualities of wool but said
procurement was a matter between manufacturers and buyers),
Auckland homelessness and housing (improving, despite the
City Mission's cry for help), Ngatata Love's knighthood
(safe at least until all legal processes are concluded), the
lack of a G20 statement of North Korea (the US and China
together are what's needed), the Green's proposed water
charges (speculation), the Greens v Winston Peters (the PM
did not judge NZ First's policy because they say all sort of
things, and nothing Mr Peters had said said made the PM
think Peters "is a racist"), and the general badness of any
Labour/Greens/NZ First
coalition.
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