QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER

Tuesday, 22 May 2001

Questions to Ministers

1. Rt Hon JENNY SHIPLEY to the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): What specific conditions has he imposed on universities with respect to their funding for next year which led Vice-Chancellor Bryan Gould to describe the Government's actions as "trying to, one would almost say, blackmail the universities into accepting this deal"?

2. RODNEY HIDE to the Minister of Revenue: Will the Government consider honouring the stopped Inland Revenue Department cheques giving taxpayers their lawful GST refunds that are now to be cancelled by proposed retrospective legislation; if not, why not?

3. MARK PECK to the Minister of Finance: Has he received any more suggestions for the Budget?

4. Hon MURRAY McCULLY to the Attorney-General: Did counsel for the Prime Minister, Mr Hugh Rennie QC, write to counsel for Mr John Yelash on 11 April in relation to defamation proceedings between those parties, to "set out a proposal to settle this matter", stating that his proposals had been "authorised" and that he had "instructions" in relation to those proposals, and did that letter contain a proposal headed "confidentiality", which stated "Except as agreed, there is to be no publication by either party of the settlement or its terms."?

5. TAITO PHILLIP FIELD to the Minister of Social Services and Employment: What steps is the Government taking to ensure the promotion of the rights of children and to monitor compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?

6. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Minister of Revenue: What new taxes are under consideration by the Government?

7. JOE HAWKE to the Minister for Sport, Fitness and Leisure: What progress has been made on the recommendations made to the Government by the ministerial taskforce into sport, fitness and leisure?

8. KEVIN CAMPBELL to the Minister of Corrections: What reports has he received about ways to turn people away from a life of crime and reduce reoffending?

9. GERRY BROWNLEE to the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): Does he intend to recommend changes to the way the Government funds students attending private training establishments?

10. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Prime Minister: Is it her position that Mr Yelash himself, or through his lawyers, demanded that the final agreement be confidential?

11. Dr LYNDA SCOTT to the Minister of Health: What is her response to comments from the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board deputy chairman that the board faces a funding cut in real terms of up to 4.5 percent and that the lack of Government funding was "a dilemma" which could cause a drop in already stretched hospital staffing levels?

12. ROD DONALD to the Minister of Conservation: On what grounds could the Government justify permitting 260 hectares of indigenous forest to be removed from the wildlife corridor in the Victoria Forest Park in Westland, in order for a 300 metre deep open cast pit to be dug and large tailings impoundments to be built, when only last year the Government ended logging on Crown owned land on the West Coast to protect conservation values?

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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>>