QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS

1. BRENDAN HORAN to the Minister of Transport: What reports or advice has he received regarding the feasibility of establishing an inter-island ferry terminal at Clifford Bay?

2. COLIN KING to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received on the economy?

3. GRANT ROBERTSON to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his reported statement of 1 May 2012 that if Hon John Banks had lied over a donation from Kim Dotcom then he would be sacked from Cabinet?

4. KEVIN HAGUE to the Minister for ACC: Does she agree with Peter Trapski’s recommendation in his 1994 Report of the Inquiry into the Procedures of the Accident Compensation Corporation that “the Corporation must ensure that the opinions it obtains from medical practitioners are independent, not only of the claimant, but also of the Corporation, and that they are seen to be so”?

5. TIM MACINDOE to the Minister of Justice: What steps is she taking to support victims of crime and put them at the heart of the justice system?

6. Hon DAVID PARKER to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement “In the past 2 years, however, almost 60,000 net new jobs have been created”; if so, what was the net number of jobs created in the two most recent years of the Statistics New Zealand Linked Employer-Employee Dataset?

7. MELISSA LEE to the Minister for Social Development: What recent announcements has she made on the Government’s welfare reforms?

8. Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE to the Minister for Economic Development: Does he agree with Finance Minister, Hon Bill English, that “In the past 2 years, however, almost 60,000 net new jobs have been created”?

9. Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM to the Minister for Climate Change Issues: Why is the Government making changes to the ETS, which Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright says will make “taxpayers subsidise the cost of pollution indefinitely” and which she has described as “a very poor way” of subsidising jobs?

10. KATRINA SHANKS to the Minister for Courts: What progress can he report on making fines and reparations a more effective part of our justice system?

11. PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister of Transport: Does he stand by all his statements on the Roads of National Significance?

12. Dr JACKIE BLUE to the Minister for Senior Citizens: How are Police and communities working together to improve responses to elder abuse and support for vulnerable older people?

QUESTIONS TO MEMBERS

1. Dr KENNEDY GRAHAM to the Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee: Does he intend to invite the New Zealand Defence Force to give evidence on the briefing on Afghanistan?

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