Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6346. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
2. 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers; if so why? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes; because they are working harder for a brighter future for all New Zealanders. 
David Shearer 
: Does he have confidence in his Minister of Education and her management of the future of education in Christchurch; if so why? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes; because she is committing $1 billion to new schooling in Christchurch. I think what we all need to understand in respect of Christchurch is that a major earthquake took place that has changed the patterns of where people live. But it has also presented an opportunity to deliver 21st century schools to Christchurch. I simply make this point: we are not rebuilding the central business district in Christchurch with exactly the same buildings; we are using the opportunity to deliver arguably the most liveable city in New Zealand and then maybe just maybe there will be an opportunity to deliver better schooling facilities for youngsters in Christchurch. I think that is a good thing. 
David Shearer 
: Does he stand by his undertaking that he will personally look through the response from each Christchurch school; if so why does he think it is necessary for a Prime Minister to personally review submissions from all these schools if he does in fact have confidence in his Minister? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes and I would point out that the Minister is personally visiting all of the schools. I understand that 35 of the 37 schools have agreed to that. Why am I personally doing that? Well I take a personal interest in Christchurch. It is one of the Government’s four key priorities and I gave that commitment to the people of Christchurch because they kept on reading nonsense from Chris Hipkins that was getting printed in the  
Press 
. 
David Shearer 
: Why will his Government not tell the communities affected by the closure and merger proposals what all the options identified by the ministry are? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The purpose now is with those affected schools to go through all of the options for those clusters to talk about what the options might be and the reasons why and to potentially come up with some good solutions. What the Government is saying to the people of Christchurch to those parents who are affected and to those schools is that we are listening to you but we are also listening to the advice we are receiving about what is changing. We are going to spend a billion dollars over the next 10 years— 
David Shearer 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have been listening for quite a while. I actually asked why he will not tell us what the options are that were put forward by the Ministry of Education. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member is welcome to repeat his question. 
David Shearer 
: Why will his Government not tell the communities affected by closure and merger proposals what all the options identified by the ministry are? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I do not have all of that detail to hand. I know what is being proposed there. So you might do best to ask that question of the Minister herself. But the point is we are now engaging in a full communication process with those schools. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was not what those options were. It was why the Minister would not tell us what those options were. The Minister has not addressed the question at all. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the Prime Minister has in that he said he cannot tell the House what those options are because he does not have them. That kind of detail he recommended should be directed to the Minister of Education and that is not unreasonable. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. No one was asking the Prime Minister what the options were. The question was why his Minister is not releasing those options. She is the person who has refused under the Official Information Act— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The member is getting into debate on the matter. The Prime Minister welcomed members to question the Minister of Education on the matter and that is not an unreasonable response from the Prime Minister. The member asked why he is not releasing that information. The Prime Minister said to address that to the Minister. He has obviously made it clear that there is no Government policy not to release that information. 
David Shearer 
: Will he instruct the Ministry of Education through his Minister to release the ministry’s advice on the future of Christchurch education which my office requested under the Official Information Act and which has been withheld by the ministry on the basis that there “does not appear to be overriding public-interest reasons” to support the release? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No because I think the primary objective at the moment is to engage in good consultation with those schools and clusters and that is what the Government is doing. 
David Shearer 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That question was really about whether he will instruct the ministry. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: In fairness the Prime Minister did say that no he would not. 
David Shearer 
: Is it acceptable that the schools proposed to be closed or merged have not been advised as to whether they will be allowed additional time to respond to the proposals even though they have not yet received all the relevant information from the ministry? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I may stand to be corrected but my understanding is that the Minister is talking to the schools about giving them additional time in working their way through the process. I may be wrong but that was the last conversation I had with her. 
David Shearer 
: When did the Minister first make him aware of the data areas including data on roll numbers number of buildings presence of facilities and damage that were included in the documents issued to schools as part of the rationale for the proposals? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I was aware after the schools had the information and had identified that they were in the list of schools that could be either merged or closed or whatever it might be that there was some discrepancy between the schools’ data and the ministry’s. A lot of data is agreed and correct and some is not. Some of it is for very technical reasons in the way that they particularly count things. Some of it has been subsequently updated because there was a gap in one particular period. But again all of that is largely an irrelevance because in the end the schools the clusters and the Government are going to sit down on an agreed plan. They may disagree over time they may choose to disagree but the data will be agreed before we go forward. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry Mr Speaker but it was a “when” question. I understand that the Minister went through and listed them. The question was when did he find out. We did not hear when. We heard a long list. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have already invited the Leader of the Opposition to repeat one question. I believe that the question was a little longer than that. I cannot remember now the detail of the question and the Prime Minister I believe responded. His answer was reasonable. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I think I made it quite clear. I said that sometime after the data had been released I was aware that there was a discrepancy between what the schools thought and what the ministry thought. That was the time when I was aware. Rusty open up your ears son. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! [ 
Interruption 
] No order! I must ask the Prime Minister to withdraw that last statement. That is not acceptable. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I withdraw. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Under a point of order that to me is not acceptable.