QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER

Wednesday, 28 February 2001

Questions to Ministers

1. MARK PECK to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he received on the state of the economy?

2. Hon MURRAY McCULLY to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises: Does he stand by his statement to the House last Thursday, in relation to the decision of New Zealand Post to file proceedings against members of this House, that he was "informed of the decision the board had taken", or has he had any reason to believe that the directors of New Zealand Post did not in fact make that decision?

3. JEANETTE FITZSIMONS to the Minister of Energy: What assumptions has the Government made about the future role of rail, given the lack of any discussion of rail in the Cabinet paper released yesterday which predicted a 50% increase in transport CO2 emissions over the next 30 years?

4. ERIC ROY to the Minister for Biosecurity: In light of the outbreak of the deadly foot-and-mouth disease in Britain, is he satisfied that New Zealand biosecurity measures are adequate to protect our primary industries from this disease?

5. MARTIN GALLAGHER to the Minister for the Environment: Has he been alerted recently to any innovative new approaches to environmental protection; if so, what were they?

6. RODNEY HIDE to the Minister of Finance: What customers does New Zealand Post regard as its natural market for its proposed "people's bank" and why do these customers need a new bank?

7. KEVIN CAMPBELL to the Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control: What does the Government hope to achieve by hosting the United Nations Asia-Pacific Disarmament Conference at the end of March?

8. Dr LYNDA SCOTT to the Minister of Health: Is she satisfied that people in remote areas are able to access first specialist medical assessment?

9. NANAIA MAHUTA to the Minister of Education: What reports has he received on how schools are spending the additional operations funding they received this year?

10. BOB SIMCOCK to the Minister of Social Services and Employment: In light of media reports that during his time as Minister the number of unallocated child abuse cases at Children, Youth and Family Services has risen from the usual level of around 2,000 to nearly 4,000, what is he doing to stop this increase and bring the numbers back down to a reasonable level?

11. GEORGINA BEYER to the Minister of Tourism: Has he received any reports on the economic impact of international visitors to New Zealand?

12. Hon ROGER SOWRY to the Minister of Social Services and Employment: Is the information regarding the changes to the Social Security Agreement with Australia contained in the Government document Thinking about living in Australia? complete and correct; if not, why not?

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>