Questions For Oral Answer

Thursday, 24 June 1999

Questions to Ministers

1. Rt Hon. Helen Clark to the Prime Minister: Was her objection to payments to departing Tourism Board directors based solely on the Controller and Auditor-General's opinion that the payments were unlawful; if so, is she now supporting the lawful settlement package for the directors being negotiated by the Minister of Tourism?

2. Hon. Dr Michael Cullen to the Prime Minister: Will she oppose the payments of any compensation to Mr Mogridge and Mr Wall; if not, why not?

3. Gerry Brownlee to the Minister for Enterprise and Commerce: Has the Government considered introducing a minimum of four weeks' annual leave, as proposed by the Alliance's spokesperson on industrial relations; if not, why not?

4. Hon. Annette King to the Minister of Health: Is the Health Funding Authority contracting for homecare workers to carry out complex personal care including the administration of pre-rectum medication, enemas, catheterisation, manual bowel evacuation and monitoring diabetics' blood sugar levels; if so, is it now Government policy to allow untrained people to carry out procedures previously only performed by trained health professionals?

5. Tony Steel to the Minister of Education: Has he been able to identify any areas of saving within his education portfolio arising from Government reforms that will enable more resources to be spent on children?

6. Liz Gordon to the Minister for Tertiary Education: Is the Government considering selling student loan accounts to the private sector?

7. Owen Jennings to the Minister for Food, Fibre, Biosecurity and Border Control: Can he confirm that the Wool Board has collected over a billion dollars in levies in the last 20 years while the real price of wool has slumped from over $11 per kilo to less than $4; if so, what is he intending to do about it?

8. Hon. Jim Sutton to the Minister for Enterprise and Commerce: What damage, if any, is being done to the rural economy by the Government's failure to introduce legislation to amend the Plant Variety Rights Act 1987 to comply with the requirements of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants?

9. Eric Roy to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises: Has he received any reports on Timberlands West Coast Ltd's progress in developing high value markets for sustainable beech timber?

10. Trevor Mallard to the Minister for Tertiary Education: As Dr Blackmur has consented to the release of the details of his severance package, will he ask the New Zealand Qualifications Authority Board to agree to that release today; if not, why not?

11. Tutekawa Wyllie to the Minister of Transport: What are the Crown's obligations to Maori who have had land taken under the Public Works Act 1981 for the purpose of an aerodrome, once the land becomes surplus to requirements and is no longer used for the purpose for which it was taken?

12. Matt Robson to the Minister of Corrections: Does the Government intend to spend $427 million building additional prison accommodation with associated annual ongoing operating costs of $137 million?

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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>>