QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER

Tuesday, 4 September 2001

Questions to Ministers

1. CHRIS CARTER to the Prime Minister: What action is the Government taking regarding the Afghan refugees from the Tampa?

2. Rt Hon JENNY SHIPLEY to the Prime Minister: Will she guarantee that the vetting procedures she puts in place for the 150 refugees from the Tampa will ensure that no Afghan who has been involved in guerilla warfare, terrorist activity or other undesirable activity will be allowed to remain in New Zealand?

3. ROD DONALD to the Minister of Commerce: Has he received advice from the Labour Party chairman of the Rimutaka electorate suggesting that New Zealand businesses and their staff will be adversely affected if the Government signs a free trade and investment agreement with the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong; if so, what action will he take as a result?

4. RODNEY HIDE to the Prime Minister: Does she have complete confidence in the judgment of the Minister of Labour, given that the Minister recommended the appointment of Ms Susan Bathgate to the Employment Relations Authority; if so, why?

5. ANN HARTLEY to the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): What has the Government done to make tertiary education more affordable to students?

6. Dr LYNDA SCOTT to the Minister of Health: What did she mean when she reportedly told the New Zealand-Australia mental health conference that some clinicians may be refusing to release mentally ill people into the community to protect themselves "just in case" something happens?

7. HARRY DUYNHOVEN to the Minister of Transport: What is the Government doing to assist young people to learn more about road safety?

8. Hon MAX BRADFORD to the Minister of Defence: Did the Chief of General Staff, directly or indirectly, use information prepared by an army officer outlining defence force costings for the F-16 deal so as to "apply as many funding formulas as possible" to ramp up the cost and make more money available for army purposes; if so, when did the Chief of General Staff receive that information?

9. HELEN DUNCAN to the Associate Minister of Education: What are the problems facing the adult and community education sector?

10. Hon TONY RYALL to the Minister of Police: What reports has he received on rising violent crime in New Zealand?

11. OWEN JENNINGS to the Minister of Defence: When did he tell his Cabinet colleagues that the Chief of Defence Force and the Secretary of Defence had recommended in a draft Cabinet paper in July 2000 the purchase of 55 light armoured vehicles with an option of 50 further vehicles and why was their cost-saving recommendation presented in the final Cabinet paper in August 2000 as an option only and not as a recommendation of the Government's two most senior defence advisers?

12. Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON to the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): Can he give a commitment that the quality of resourcing for universities next year will deliver high standards of tuition?

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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>>