Questions to Ministers

1. JEANETTE FITZSIMONS to the Minister of Finance: Has he been advised of any central government forecasts that have more accurately predicted the trend of rising oil prices than Treasury or the Reserve Bank, given his statement in the House yesterday that, “there is a very, very high probability that any forecasts are likely to be wrong in this area”?

2. JOHN KEY to the Prime Minister: Does she have confidence in all her Ministers?

3. GORDON COPELAND to the Minister of Housing: Is the Minister taking note of the evidence being submitted to the Commerce Committee housing affordability inquiry; if so, will she be taking that evidence into account in framing her policy response to the issue of severe housing unaffordability for New Zealand’s families?

4. GERRY BROWNLEE to the Minister of State Services: Does he have confidence in the State Services Commissioner; if so, why?

5. CHARLES CHAUVEL to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises: What is the Government doing to monitor the social responsibility of State-owned enterprises?

6. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Minister of Justice: Does she stand by her statement yesterday, when asked whether Government advertising programmes would be caught by the definition of election advertising in the Electoral Finance Bill, “No, Government departments will not be caught, because they will go to the Auditor-General to have their advertising cleared.”; if so, why?

7. Dr PITA SHARPLES to the Minister of Māori Affairs: He aha te mahi mana, tetahi atu hoki, a, ma tana Tari ranei ki te whakautu i nga ngaukino i tau ki runga i a Ngai Tuhoe ake, i whakaputaina ra e te kaikorero mo Tuhoe a Tamati Kruger, i ki ra “Ki ahau nei, ahakoa ko wai te tangata, he tika tonu kia riri a ia – penei hoki i a tatau nei. Me kaua rawa e warewaretia e tatau.”?

- Translation: What action, if any, will he or his Ministry be taking to respond to the trauma specifically experienced by the iwi of Tuhoe, as expressed by Tuhoe spokesperson, Tamati Kruger, and I quote, “I think any normal, regular person would feel anger – and we do feel angry about what’s happened. We must not forget it.”?

8. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Minister of Finance: Did the business tax cuts announced in the 2007 Budget meet his “four tests” for tax cuts; if not, why not?

9. RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: How many families are benefiting from Working for Families?

10. KATHERINE RICH to the Minister of Education: Does he stand by his statements to the House yesterday that “The ministry took every appropriate step it needed to” and that the Board of Hato Paora “followed the appropriate steps” when dealing with concerns regarding serious allegations of sexual abuse made against the school’s principal?

11. SUE MORONEY to the Minister of Women's Affairs: What reports has she received on New Zealand’s performance regarding the gender gap relative to other countries?

12. BOB CLARKSON to the Minister for Building and Construction: Will he support an inquiry into the use of tin-based timber treatment, noting the reports of builders coughing up blood, and suffering headaches, rashes and nose bleeds; if not, why not?

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More