2. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does he have confidence in all his Ministers?
Hon BILL ENGLISHDoes he agree with the Minister for Social Development and Employment that her welfare reforms, which breach the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, would not bother most people and that “it is a discrimination that most New Zealanders will see as being fair and reasonable.”; if so, why?
Yes. If the Government chooses not to work test older women who have been on the widows benefit, I think most people would regard that as a fair amount of discrimination.
In light of that answer, why does he believe that the children of widows are more deserving of support from his Government than the children of widowers?
The Government has made a series of decisions across a package known as Future Focus. It happens that the Attorney-General has made a statement to Parliament, according to the requirements of Parliament, that says that those changes are discriminatory. However, the Government is free under those procedures to proceed with its policy.
Does he agree with the Minister for Social Development and Employment, who said that there are jobs out there for everyone, or with Paul Henry, who said on Breakfast that if Paula Bennett believed that, she was living in cloud-cuckoo-land?
The good news today is that the released economic figures show that the economy is growing and creating new jobs. It is an aspiration of this Government that everyone who is on welfare should be looking for work. Actually, quite a lot of them are finding work.
How can he have confidence in his Minister of State Services, who told this House last week that there were no plans to close the Blenheim Accident Compensation Corporation office, only for its closure to be announced today?
The Prime Minister has great confidence in the Minister of State Services because he is a much better Minister of State Services than the previous Minister was.
Mr SPEAKERNo, no. With the nature of the questions being asked, inevitably there will be a political element to the answers. The member well knows that and she cannot use a point of order to say that.
Has he ensured that the Minister of Energy and Resources has consulted with the Minister of Tourism over the potential conflict of prospecting for minerals on Dun Mountain at the same time as he is advocating for a national cycleway through the same area?
Which analogy is accurate: his comparison of Whānau Ora to a waterbed, or the comparison by the Minister of Energy and Resources of mining to a date scone?