February 8, 2012 11:57am by David Farrar

Parliament 8 February 2012

Oral Questions 2 pm – 3 pm

  1. DAVID SHEARER to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement in the House yesterday, in answer to Oral Question No 2, that his Government is selling assets because “New Zealanders want less debt, more productive assets, and an economy that is going to function, not a load more debt”?
  2. PAUL GOLDSMITH to the Minister for Economic Development: What progress is the Government making in implementing its economic growth agenda?
  3. PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister of Transport: Does the Government consider it important for its transport spending to be cost-effective and provide a good return on investment?
  4. Dr RUSSEL NORMAN to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises: What, according to the Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit, was the average total shareholder return of Genesis, Meridian, Mighty River Power and Solid Energy over the last five years and how does that compare to the average cost of borrowing to the Government right now?
  5. NICKY WAGNER to the Minister of Local Government: What reports has he received on how much rates increased nationally in the decade since the Local Government Act 2002 and how does this compare to the previous decade?
  6. GRANT ROBERTSON to the Minister for the Environment: Does he stand by his statement made in the House yesterday in relation to the grounding of the Rena that “the statute sets down very clearly that I as Minister for the Environment should not be encouraging or discouraging a proper, independent decision by Environment Bay of Plenty as to whether they should or should not take a prosecution”?
  7. KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI to the Minister of Broadcasting: What recent announcements has the Government made on progress towards digital switchover?
  8. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Prime Minister: Does he still have confidence in all his Ministers?
  9. Hon LIANNE DALZIEL to the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery: How many written comments were received on the draft Recovery Plan for the Christchurch CBD and is it his intention to consider them all before making a decision on the draft Recovery Plan for the CBD, in accordance with the process set out on the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority’s website?
  10. MELISSA LEE to the Minister of Internal Affairs: What recent steps have there been to promote New Zealand citizenship as a successful settlement pathway for migrants?
  11. CLARE CURRAN to the Minister of Broadcasting: Does he stand by the Prime Minister’s statement in relation to the appointment of the Prime Minister’s electorate chairman Stephen McElrea to the NZ On Air board that “if you look at the vast array of appointments we make, I think the balance is about right”?
  12. CATHERINE DELAHUNTY to the Minister of Education: Will she rule out implementing Treasury’s advice to increase class sizes in schools?
So today we have four patsies from National, five questions from Labour, two from the Greens and one from NZ First.
Labour have Shearer on asset sales, Twyford on transport (prob CBD rail loop vs SH1 to Wellsford), Robertson on Rena again, Dalziel on Chch and Curran on NZ on Air.
Greens are doing half asset sales and half on school class sizes. They really need to be more disciplined. The school class story will go nowhere as it was just a view in their BIM from Treasury, not an actual plan.
Winston has the same question as yesterday. I suspect he will keep dredging out allegedly inappropriate spending under Whanau Ora. Personally I think it is nice to see Winston supporting fiscal discipline for a change – much better than his bribes to oldies.

Address in Reply Debate 3 pm – 6 pm 

Includes NZ First MP maiden speeches

Government Bills 7.30 pm – 10 pm

  1. National Animal Identification and Tracing Bill Third reading
  2. Road User Charges Bill Third reading
  3. Sentencing (Aggravating Factors) Amendment Bill Interrupted debate on second reading
  4. Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill First reading
  5. Consumer Law Reform Bill First reading

Again nothing terribly exciting. However No 6 on the order paper is the second reading of the Search and Surveillance Bill, which has lots to get excited about. I doubt they will get to it until next week though.

I’ll generally list the next five bills on the order paper. This does not indicate that I think they will get through five bills per day. That would be quite rare. However they did get through three bills yesterday, and part-way through a fourth.