Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:608;Page:5601] 
5.  
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Why did she say last month that her Minister of Immigration was a hard-working and conscientious Minister? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Because she was last month and is this month. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: If that is the case why is she giving glowing references to a Minister of Immigration based on her penchant for blaming every previous administration her unwillingness to accept responsibility her inability to provide accurate numbers of immigrants visitors or overstayers and her gymnastics in rearranging the status of an overstayer to now call him a worker when he will not work for the next 12 months—and probably longer—without ascertaining just how many New Zealanders are on waiting lists and will die because of the money that should have gone to them as New Zealanders first? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The gentleman concerned I understand came to New Zealand as a visitor in 1998 and presumably overstayed while that member was Deputy Prime Minister. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You will have heard my question. My question was detailed and specific and for the Prime Minister to get up and tell another porky will not do. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No. Please be seated. The Prime Minister gave an answer. That was her answer and she stands by it. It can be questioned. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We have heard over and over that you are not responsible for answers. You are responsible for Parliament remaining a credible body and I think also for question time being relevant. Therefore I would think that you should require Ministers answering questions to at least make the answer have some relevance to the question. In this case the Prime Minister simply said that the person concerned arrived in New Zealand in 1998. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Presumes. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: She presumes that. That has nothing to do with the losses that some New Zealanders may now suffer as a result of that guy getting treatment. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member has raised that as a point of order but it is not one. 
Marc Alexander 
: Can the Prime Minister confirm that the Minister of Immigration is so conscientious that she asked the Minister of Statistics to offer party leaders a briefing on interpreting immigration statistics to which one leader replied that he was “busy … so stop sending me these stupid puerile letters—there’s a good boy!”? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am aware that the Minister of Statistics did offer the leader of New Zealand First some coaching. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Could you perhaps tell me how a question on the performance of the Minister of Immigration has anything whatsoever to do with Statistics New Zealand or that Minister? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The original question that the member asked was whether the Minister was a hard-working and conscientious Minister and the supplementary question developed that part of that question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You must not rush to the Prime Minister’s defence as easily as that every day. The reality is that that question from the United Future party was about the Minister of Statistics having sent a letter. That has no connection or relationship whatsoever to the original question. Now that being the case how can the Prime Minister in the first answer say she presumes something and in the second answer give a wishy-washy answer the details of which she does not know and that is the end of question time on that issue? It is simply wrong and my point of order was this: why did you allow it to be ruled in? 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: The member’s own first supplementary question referred to the issue of immigration statistics. The briefing was about the issue of how immigration statistics are collected. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is perfectly correct and that is why the question was ruled in. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Could the Prime Minister tell me how it could possibly be the case that the Minister of Immigration conscientious and hard-working as she is claimed to be could arrive at a decision to call an overstayer a worker by reason of a temporary work permit when he would have no qualification to fulfil that role in the foreseeable future; and how many other New Zealanders firstly would be getting that job—if they could get the job—or secondly could get that treatment if they were given the same priorities that every foreigner in this country is where this Labour Government is concerned? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The overstayer concerned was invited to regularise his status last year. The reason for the invitation was that he was married to a New Zealand woman and of course by March this year he had a New Zealand – born child. The leader of New Zealand First may well relish going in and pulling the plug on someone’s machine in those circumstances; the Minister did not. 
Marc Alexander 
: I seek leave to table a copy of a letter from Winston Peters to John Tamihere telling him that he was a busy man and so he should stop sending him “these stupid puerile letters”. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.