Questions for Oral Answer
As At Wednesday, 23 June 2004

Questions to Ministers

1. STEPHEN FRANKS to the Minister of Justice: When he promoted the Parole Act 2002 what level of risk to their safety did he think the community should be obliged to accept before the Parole Board could decline parole under section 7 of that Act, and what does he believe is a level of risk that is "undue"?

2. JUDY TURNER to the Prime Minister: What progress has been made in ensuring that the new Families Commission will be up and running this year, as she indicated in the Prime Minister's Statement in February 2004?

3. RON MARK to the Minister of Police: Does he consider the current staffing levels of both sworn and non-sworn police to be adequate; if so, why?

4. GERRY BROWNLEE to the Minister of Fisheries: Does the recent aquaculture proposal allow Maori to tender for aquaculture space from the general pool as well as being allocated a blanket 20 percent of new aquaculture space; if so, why?

5. MARTIN GALLAGHER to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Has he received any reports relating to the legislation prohibiting nuclear powered ships visiting New Zealand?

6. KATHERINE RICH to the Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF): Does she stand by her response to question nine yesterday that the two other children taken into care were not subject to physical or sexual abuse, and what was the specific nature of the "detrimental living environment" the mother was in at the time the children were removed from her care?

7. SUE KEDGLEY to the Minister for Food Safety: Is it Government policy that New Zealanders have the right to know what is in the food they eat and where it comes from; if not, why not?

8. DAVID PARKER to the Associate Minister for Industry and Regional Development: What progress has been made with the Government's business incubator scheme over recent years?

9. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): Does he stand by his statement to the House on 6 May 2004 that, in relation to spending on enrolment incentives by Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, "I am informed by officials that the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology spent $80,000 in total on book vouchers. That was largely $20 plus GST for each person who was involved."; if not, why not?

10. RON MARK to the Attorney-General: Will she be ordering an inquiry into claims of serious abuse at psychiatric institutions during the 1960s and 1970s; if not, why not?

11. Hon ROGER SOWRY to the Minister of Tourism: Does he stand by his comment that surcharges charged by hospitality operators on public holidays are "shortsighted" and send the wrong message to tourists; if so, what advice has he offered to the Minister of Labour on this issue?

12. MOANA MACKEY to the Minister of Tourism: Has he received any reports on marketing New Zealand as a cultural tourism destination?

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>>