Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) Link to this
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I raise it under Standing Order 377, “Contents of replies”. On 8 April 2009 you were good enough to write me a letter—and I am grateful for that—on the matter of a question that I had asked the Minister of Corrections in respect of how many Cabinet papers had been lodged by Cabinet committees, the reply for which was that there were other avenues to obtain the information. You stated that you do not believe that such replies are acceptable, and that you would be concerned if Ministers were to take the view that they could avoid their obligation to answer parliamentary questions simply because other processes to obtain information exist. Finally, you said that Ministers have a responsibility to the House for the public offices they hold, that they should take questions seriously, and that they should endeavour to give informative replies.
My simple request of you is—given that informative letter—whether you would consider writing to the Prime Minister to request that he write to his Ministers asking them to comply with your directive, so that the question and answer process is treated with respect and not with the contempt that that Minister has shown.
Mr SPEAKERThe honourable member made a perfectly fair point, for a start. I do not think that the last part of that point of order was appropriate; in fact, it was inappropriate. Be that as it may, the honourable Leader of the House, the Hon Gerry Brownlee, has been working with the Business Committee on trying to resolve this issue, because it is an issue of concern to the House. What has been recommended is that we allow a little bit of time to get it sorted out. There are one or two other issues around written questions, as well, that are not quite as straightforward as that one. I am endeavouring to make progress, and if, in 3 or 4 weeks’ time, the member is still not happy, he is welcome to raise the matter with me again.