Parliament 18 November 2015

The House is in urgency today debating and voting on three bills through all stages.

They are:

• The Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Bill
• The Social Security (Commencement of Benefits) Amendment Bill
• The Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill.

The House will sit from 9 am to midnight with one hour breaks at 1 pm and 6 pm. Normally there is no question time under urgency, but the Government sought leave for question time to still occur.

Each bill if fully debated will have six hours of debates for the main reading plus committee stages which I estimate could take seven hours, so the total time could be up to 23 hours. But as some are not overly controversial, it should be shorter.

The questions are:

1. JAMES SHAW to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his answers to Oral Question No. 5 yesterday?
2. ANDREW LITTLE to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in all of his Ministers?
3. JONATHAN YOUNG to the Minister of Finance: What proportion of the economy is made up by the services sector, and how can the Government boost the productivity of this sector?
4. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements?
5. GRANT ROBERTSON to the Minister for Primary Industries:Does he agree with the advice of the Prime Minister in regard to dairy prices made in November last year when the average price at the global dairy auction was US$2,561 a tonne for farmers not to get too worried, and that the price would bottom out soon and start climbing again; if so, can he advise what is the latest average price at the global dairy auction?
6. Dr JIAN YANG to the Minister of Education: What progress has been made on the Investing in Educational Success initiative?
7. JULIE ANNE GENTER to the Minister of Transport: Does he agree with the Secretary of the Treasury that “there could very well be some merit” in evaluating and funding rail infrastructure on the same basis as state highways and other transport infrastructure?
8. PHIL TWYFORD to the Minister for Social Housing: Is she embarrassed that families are living in cars?
9. JOANNE HAYES to the Minister of Conservation (Acting): What are the benefits of the Pike29 Great Walk, and the extension of the Paparoa National Park that takes effect today?
10. Hon DAVID PARKER to the Minister for Economic Development: Does the withheld NZTE-funded report on why most of the lambs died on the taxpayer-funded farm in the Saudi desert confirm or disprove the statement by Hon Nathan Guy on 18 June 2015 that he thought the lambs could have died in a sand storm?
11. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Deputy Prime Minister: Is he confident that the money spent on the Flag Referendum is appropriate and lawful?
12. IAN McKELVIE to the Minister for Food Safety: What initiatives has the Government put in place to encourage the food and beverage industry to reduce the sugar content of their products?

National: Four questions on the economy, education, the Pike29 Great Walk and sugar in food

Labour: Four questions on PM having confidence in Ministers, dairy prices, families living in cars and the Saudi farm

Greens: Two questions on Minister of Finance standing by his statement and transport funding

NZ First: Two questions on Finance Minister standing by his statements and the flag referenda