Questions for Oral Answer
As At Wednesday, 24 March 2004

Questions to Ministers

1. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Minister for ACC: Is she satisfied with ACC's rehabilitation policy; if so, why?

2. JEANETTE FITZSIMONS to the Minister for the Environment: Has she received a copy of the report "Community Management of GMOs" and what advice, if any, has she received on its contents?

3. Dr WAYNE MAPP to the Associate Minister of Justice: Will she rule out Maori customary title co-existing with Crown title, given her statement yesterday that "confusion has arisen" because of the term customary title?

4. CLAYTON COSGROVE to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received on the success of Kiwibank?

5. Hon KEN SHIRLEY to the Minister for the Environment: Why did she grant requiring authority status to Contact Energy Limited in August 2000 as a network utility operator under section 167 of the Resource Management Act 1991, and in so doing what actions did she take to ensure that she complied with her statutory obligations?

6. PAUL ADAMS to the Minister of Local Government: Does he stand by his statement to the House yesterday that "the removal of GST would not lead to a significant fall in rating bills, because local authorities would have to recoup their lost revenue in other ways."; if so, why?

7. Hon TONY RYALL to the Minister of Corrections: What is the total cost over the past four years for iwi expenditure for each of the Northland, Spring Hill, Auckland Women's and Otago Regional corrections facilities, including payments for: cultural advisory services, tikanga advice, iwi communication and other cultural assessment or management activities?

8. SUE KEDGLEY to the Associate Minister of Health: When was he first advised that some anti-depressant drugs can trigger dangerous side-effects, such as suicidal thoughts, in adolescents?

9. RON MARK to the Minister of Corrections: Has he received any advice regarding the liability risks posed by legislating within the Corrections Bill that the Department of Corrections must devise individual management plans and rehabilitation programmes for prisoners; if so, what information has he received?

10. Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY to the Minister of Education: Is it the Government's intention to expand the use of the asTTle assessment tool beyond years 5-7; if so, why?

11. KATHERINE RICH to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: What were the reasons that the Community Employment Group gave $26,000 to a woman to "do a whole lot of travelling for hip-hop" when she admitted that she was "green" on her knowledge of hip-hop, "Nothing major came of the trip, apart from seeing it all happen." and that the Hawaii and Fiji leg of the trip was "basically to chill out."

12. TIM BARNETT to the Minister of Justice: What trends are shown in recent Ministry of Justice forecasts of the prison population and what reasons are given for these trends by the Ministry of Justice?

ENDS

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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>>