2. Question No. 2—Prime MinisterHon NIKKI KAYE (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 2—Prime Minister2. Hon NIKKI KAYE (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by her statements yesterday that Ministers were advised that the testing was happening twice during the period of quarantine" and in response to whether officials had misled her "This is not a revelation or new information"?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes.Hon Nikki Kaye: On what occasions was she provided with information by officials that she considers is misleading?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: It's not rocket science when you have cases of human fallibility and mistakes to realise that on those occasions eventually the report will be made to the Prime Minister.Hon Nikki Kaye: Is there an inquiry or investigation under way to determine how Ministers could have been presented with false or misleading information about testing or managed isolation?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: At this point in time the priority of this Government is to fix it from the top to the bottom. We again know that human error is always a possibility in any organisation and one as grave as this was likely to happen. We said at the very beginning: there will be mistakes. We'll learn from it and we will fix it.Hon Nikki Kaye: Will she absolutely guarantee there will not be an inquiry or investigation into the failures that have occurred?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister it would be wrong to actually guarantee against a future inquiry. We cannot see the purpose of making such a commitment when in fact transparency and openness is our middle name.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does she believe it is acceptable for Dr David Clark to make Dr Ashley Bloomfield accept all responsibility for the failures of her Government in testing and managed isolation?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister unlike the member and her colleagues who are paragons of propriety and infallibility Dr Bloomfield and Dr Clark are not infallible. But the response we have seen this far in this country by international comparison is seriously exemplary.SPEAKER: I do want to warn the Prime Minister in these circumstances to be a little bit careful with the ironic language.Hon Nikki Kaye: Is Dr Ashley Bloomfield the scapegoat for her Government's failures?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister this country is seriously indebted to Dr Ashley Bloomfield. He is a civil servant who has done his best to do his job.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Public—he's a public servant.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Beg your pardon?SPEAKER: He's a public servant.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh OK; no longer civil no longer servants? He is a public servant who has done his best to do his job and again it's a team effort. We are asking 5 million New Zealanders to be front-line officers in our battle against COVID-19. It includes the people over there. We're all in this together. As we said there will be mistakes—our job is to learn from them and fix them.Hon Grant Robertson: In light of that answer does the Prime Minister consider it was an example of infallibility or of acknowledging mistakes for Michael Woodhouse to not provide evidence of his claim of a homeless man joining a hotel queue?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister that instance was breathtaking because there was a suggestion that someone had committed fraud against the New Zealand taxpayer without any evidence at all and we still wait for some clarity from the person and member of Parliament who made the allegation. I also want to say by way of comparison in terms of sound policy that it was the original questioner today who said that we should be bringing in all these foreign students without any idea as to where they'd be quarantined or her leader who said we should be opening up the border right now with China. Again this is hardly a springboard by way of comparison of action that the member—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Where's the Standing Orders about not attacking the Opposition?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —could be honestly proud of.Hon Nikki Kaye: Are officials responsible—SPEAKER: Order! The Hon Dr Nick Smith will stand withdraw and apologise.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I stand withdraw and apologise. Point of order Mr Speaker—SPEAKER: No no; the member will withdraw and apologise properly.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. There's a longstanding rule that the Government cannot use a question to simply attack the Opposition.SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. Hon Dr Nick Smith: I noticed you didn't intervene.SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. That is a matter for me to deal with not the member.Hon Dr Nick Smith: The problem is you don't.SPEAKER: Order! Who made that interjection? Hon Dr Nick Smith: Me.SPEAKER: The member will leave the Chamber.Hon Dr Nick Smith withdrew from the Chamber. Hon Nikki Kaye: Are officials responsible for all of the failures in testing in managed isolation or does she accept her Minister of Health must take some responsibility?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister we know that at specific sites there were examples of failure; at none of those sites was there the clear and present responsibility of Dr Ashley Bloomfield or the Minister of Health. That sort of logistical behaviour is impossible and so yes the identified problems happened at certain sites and our job is to fix them.Hon Nikki Kaye: Does she accept that regardless of where failures occur—operationally or from a policy perspective—Ministers should be held accountable under the Cabinet Manual?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister yes held accountable but to use the phrase of a famous American president—Roosevelt in this case—there will be mistakes we'll learn from them and we will fix them.Hon Chris Hipkins: Would the officials working at the front line have more time to do the jobs that we desperately need them to do if they weren't having to investigate spurious and baseless claims being made by members of the Opposition?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Most definitely. To have an official having to behave like Sherlock Holmes to find a guilty party that doesn't exist is preposterous behaviour and Mr Woodhouse should be apologising to the country.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Is the Prime Minister aware whether her Minister of Housing as the Minister responsible for managed isolation and quarantine has yet to receive any more information from Michael Woodhouse as to the claim around the homeless man?Hon Gerry Brownlee: No such position exists. There's no delegation.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister the answer's already come from the expert woodwork teacher from Christchurch. The reality is a serious allegation was made to create suspicion and concern in the public mind. That was made by a former Minister a front-bencher of the National Party and we are all waiting in this country all 5 million of us to know what are the facts behind that allegation. Mr Woodhouse when are we going to hear it?Hon Michael Woodhouse: Will she commit to telling the New Zealand public if and when the investigations being led by Dr Megan Woods reveals the veracity of the claim?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister most definitely. But this is how the real world works—this is how the real world works. When an allegation is made especially from someone who's educated and a member of Parliament and a former Minister you expect that member to back it up. We do not want the old fungus or moss ad that used to go like this "I just spray and walk away." Spray and walk away won't do Mr Woodhouse. Hon Nikki Kaye: In light of the people who absconded from managed isolation and the failures in testing when will she or any of her Ministers accept responsibility for the huge failures that have occurred? Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister a question like that would surely require the questioner to have a rough idea of how the Cabinet Manual works and how responsibility works. There's no way a general can be responsible for the actions of a soldier in the field but his job is to find out and try to eliminate such repetitive behaviour. But the general is not responsible any more than the Minister was in these cases.Hon Nikki Kaye: Will she absolutely guarantee that David Clark is no longer responsible for testing managed isolation or quarantine in New Zealand?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister there was a change made and the Minister of Housing has been put in charge of that. In fact to use the old newspaper ad "Keep up.""