Paraphrased answers to today's question will be posted in the Headlines wire on completion of question time.

Question 1.

Rt Hon. Winston Peters to the Minister for Food, Fibre, Biosecurity and Border Control:

Q: Are the monthly travel claims and credit card expenditure of senior managers in the Ministry of Fisheries required to be approved and signed off as part of internal procedures designed to prevent inappropriate activity; if so, have there been, in the last five years, departures from this requirement or any irregularities with respect to travel and expense claims or credit card abuse?

Question 2.

Rt Hon. Helen Clark to the Prime Minister:

Q: As Treasury has advised that the tax cut legislation should be in place before the election if there was to be enough time for new rates to come into force on 1 April next year, why has the Government decided not to progress such legislation?

Question 3.

Alec Neill to the Minister for Enterprise and Commerce:

Q: What importance does the Government attach to flexible labour markets for productivity and competitiveness in the economy?

Question 4.

Hon. Annette King to the Prime Minister:

Q: Does she stand by her statement of last October that "The raft of housing initiatives announced by the National minority Government this week will help to ensure that low income New Zealand families have affordable and suitable housing." in the face of reports that Auckland residents are paying market rents to live in rat-infested, unhygienic and overcrowded State houses; if not, why not?

Question 5.

Rev. Ann Batten to the Minister for the Environment:

Q: Has he any plans to announce a decision allowing polluters of contaminants such as asbestos to be sued?

Question 6.

Trevor Mallard to the Minister for Tertiary Education:

Q: Has he considered the reported comments by the Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University that "The new money coming into the university sector is a pittance and the main effect is to reshuffle existing funding."; if so, how will this promote a knowledge economy?

Question 7.

Annabel Young to the Minister for International Trade:

Q: What reports has he received on the progress that APEC member economies are making towards the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment?

Question 8.

Phillida Bunkle to the Minister of Health:

Q: Has Pacific Health been funded sufficiently to provide nurses at Tauranga Hospital with a five percent pay rise?

Question 9.

Hon. Richard Prebble to the Prime Minister:

Q: Has the Labour Party President supplied her with information to support his reported belief that the CIA was possibly involved in the death of former Prime Minister Norman Kirk and that she should ask the United States President for the CIA files on the matter; if not, what action is she proposing to take?

Question 10.

Hon. Jim Sutton to the Prime Minister:

Q: When she said on television this week that she had made mistakes this year, which specific incidents was she referring to?

Question 11.

Warren Kyd to the Minister for Accident Insurance:

Q: What changes to ACC premiums are currently the subject of public consultation?

Question 12.

Pete Hodgson to the Minister for Information Technology:

Q: Does he accept the criticism of the Information Technology Advisory Group that the Government has not provided leadership in the development of human capital which is pivotal to a knowledge economy; if not, why not?

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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>>