Key John: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Key John: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:647;Page:16356] 
2.  
JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she have confidence in all her Ministers; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes; because they are all hard-working and conscientious Ministers. 
John Key 
: Why does the Prime Minister have confidence in the Minister of Education when the number of education bureaucrats has increased by nearly 40 percent since 2000 and the actual number of teachers has increased by only 12 percent in the same time frame and what does that say about her Government’s priorities? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I would advise the member to look rather carefully at his figures because he might want to consider the incorporation into the ministry of the Special Education Service for example. 
John Key 
: How can the Prime Minister have confidence in the Minister for Tertiary Education when he has overseen a Budget increase of $22 million or 44 percent at the Tertiary Education Commission for the next financial year? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: In case the member has not noticed this I say there is a major improvement and change programme going on in tertiary education driven by the commission. 
John Key 
: Why should the Tertiary Education Commission receive a 44 percent increase in funding for the next financial year when it has had a 25 percent turnover of staff has blown the budget for consultants and contractors by three times last year and has undergone constant restructuring; and why does she have confidence in her Minister when he is simply propping up a failing bureaucracy? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The whole point of the tertiary reforms is to bring better quality tertiary education and get rid of the drivel that was allowed to be funded under National’s funding model. 
John Key 
: Why should the New Zealand public have any confidence in her Minister of Health and her Government’s spending priorities in health when the percentage increase in the number of front-line doctors and nurses still lags behind the increase in district health board bureaucrats which now number over 10200 according to answers given by the Hon David Cunliffe to written questions? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: It is not my practice to accept prima facie a single figure that member uses. 
John Key 
: Does the Prime Minister accept then that I did not ask whether she has confidence in me but whether she has confidence in David Cunliffe who actually wrote in answer to a written question that there are 10200 bureaucrats? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am pleased that the member did not ask me whether I had any confidence in him because clearly the answer is “None.” 
Heather Roy 
: How can she have any confidence in her Minister of Education when he has kids stuck in shipping containers such as those at Longbeach School and when he acts on complaints only when they are raised in Parliament or on the  
Campbell Live 
 television programme? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am somewhat disappointed that a member of this Parliament namely that member would give comfort to a school that put children in conditions that clearly would not be in conformity with the health and safety legislation. 
Rodney Hide 
: How can she have confidence in her Minister of Finance when he takes core Government spending of $34 billion increases it to $61 billion in just 10 years—an increase of 80 percent when prices have gone up by only 30 percent—gives a tax cut worth a block of cheese 2 weeks out from the election and then says there is no room for any more cuts because he has spent the money? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am delighted that that question has been asked because I am awaiting the answers to some other questions. How does another political party fund $1.5 billion towards Telecom fund taking all local bodies’ infrastructure spending on its books driving up the national debt and promise bigger tax cuts than the Government’s? I want to know what the National Party’s plan is. Does it have one? Have the National members figured it out themselves? 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I want to know the answer to those questions too but I do not think that the Prime Minister asking questions of the National Party actually addressed my question. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Given the way in which the question was asked it really asked for an opinion. It seems that with these questions which are very broad we do get very broad answers. In that instance unless the Prime Minister wants to add anything else I say she has addressed the question. 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I very directly addressed the member’s question. We take pride in having funded many thousands more teachers doctors nurses and health professionals of all kinds. We take pride along with our confidence and supply partners in funding a decent rate of New Zealand superannuation for our older citizens. Those are among the primary reasons why Government spending is up. I am proud of that. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Mr Hide’s question was very specific. It certainly had one or two qualifiers to it but it basically asked the Prime Minister whether she has confidence in the Hon Michael Cullen. She has not expressed an answer to that. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I did not hear a question like that. The question was very broad. I judge that the Prime Minister did address that question—twice. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: Was the Tertiary Education Commission originally comprised of many staff around many offices throughout New Zealand in an earlier organisation called Skill New Zealand? 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Surely one cannot accept a question from a Minister that begins with the statement “The Tertiary Education Commission” and goes on in the nature of a speech. If the Minister has a question he should get it out fast. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Let us hear the Minister’s question. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: Can the Prime Minister confirm that the Tertiary Education Commission was originally comprised of many staff around New Zealand in an earlier organisation called Skill New Zealand; that those staff were not always well skilled for a modern tertiary education system; that that in part explains the high turnover rate that the Tertiary Education Commission has been experiencing; and that it is not very often that the National Party criticises the Government for a reduction in bureaucracy? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am prepared to accept entirely the facts the Minister has put on the table. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Can the Prime Minister confirm that the total number of new teachers above roll growth that have been employed under the Labour-led Government is 6024 which is more than twice the total number of bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am sure the numbers that the member has given are right and further I am sure that very few of those teachers would want the National Party’s policy of bulk funding national testing and performance pay for teachers. 
John Key 
: Does the Prime Minister have confidence in the Minister of Immigration who last week told the House that he had no knowledge of serious staff misconduct within the Immigration Service yet who at the same time had signed out a number of answers to questions for written answer that outlined precisely such serious misdemeanours; and was her Minister misleading the House or is he really so incompetent that he does not read his own answers to his own questions? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I understand that the chief executives—and there have been several of them—at the Department of Labour have kept Ministers generally informed about employment issues. 
John Key 
: I seek leave to table answers from the Minister of Health regarding the number of bureaucrats in district health boards. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table those documents. Is there any objection? There is objection.