9. Provincial Growth Fund—Announcements and Media ReportsMARK PATTERSON (NZ First) to the Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentProvincial Growth Fund—Announcements and Media Reports9. MARK PATTERSON (NZ First) to the Minister for Regional Economic Development: What recent media reports has he seen regarding the Provincial Growth Fund?Hon SHANE JONES (Minister for Regional Economic Development): The Leader of the Opposition warbled yesterday. He described the fund in a very harsh and cruel manner as beads blankets and trinkets to the regions. I'm not entirely sure if that was reflective of a certain audience he had in front of him but I think what that did was diminish the status of the regions and there's some small prospect that given a bead is a small piece of plastic with a hole in it he was talking about himself.Mark Patterson: Did he agree with the Leader of the Opposition when—Hon David Bennett: No no no. You can't ask that question.Mark Patterson: —he admitted in that interview that regional development would not be a spending priority for a Government he led?SPEAKER: Order! Order! Can I say to David Bennett that he knows very little about Standing Orders and his interjections have just lost the recently awarded questions to his side.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. How does the Minister have responsibility and doesn't that question effectively fly in the face of your veto on the Government using questions to attack the Opposition?SPEAKER: No. In this particular case it was a very straight question: does he agree with the Leader of the Opposition? I mean that's a very reasonable question.Hon SHANE JONES: It is troubling to the provinces and indeed to myself that the Leader of the Opposition has announced that regional development would not be a priority which might explain why so many members on the other side of the House are so actively advocating that I continue in this vein.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My case in point here is that no such announcement has been made by the Leader of the Opposition. So if you think about what the question was there is no way that that particular response from Mr Jones could be considered inside Standing Orders.SPEAKER: Well the fact that an answer may be inaccurate is something that I cannot always pass judgment on and I'm not prepared to. The quality of the answer—I think it's very much dependent on one's viewpoint or the direction one is coming from. And in this case if the member disagrees or if the member's side disagrees then they should further question the Minister; or if they believe that he is deliberately misleading the House then there is other action that can be taken.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We're trying very hard to stay within the dictates of some of the initiatives that you've brought to the House since you've taken that seat. One of them that has been quite strong and was particularly reinforced a few weeks back was that the Government should not use its own questions to gratuitously attack the Opposition. That was nothing less than a gratuitous attack on the Opposition. If it wasn't that then it was a Minister being grossly reckless with the truth.SPEAKER: Well I'm not certain that there's anything in there that I'm being asked to rule on.Mark Patterson: Which Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) projects have involved the distribution of beads blankets and trinkets to the regions?Hon SHANE JONES: It's unfortunate that that residual language based on the association of the last regime with the Māori Party has subsisted in the narrative of the Leader of the Opposition.SPEAKER: OK. Order! That's enough. Thank you.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Has he seen a report on Stuff on 29 June saying National's Paul Goldsmith slammed Jones for backtracking on his promises being 'deliberately tricky' and refusing to be held to account." and if so what is his excuse for such shameful behaviour?SPEAKER: Order! I'm just trying to work out whether I just completely rule it out or I give the member another shot. I'll give him another shot because I'm generous.Hon Paul Goldsmith: I'm very happy to have another shot. Has he seen a report on Stuff on 29 June that says National's Paul Goldsmith "slammed Jones for backtracking on his promises being 'deliberately tricky' and refusing to be held to account."?Hon SHANE JONES: Speaking as the regional development Minister there has never been an incident where Goldsmith has slammed the Minister.Mark Patterson: What recent PGF announcements has the Government actually made?Hon SHANE JONES: During the past week the "provincial champion" was invited to Murihiku—that's in the deep South Otago in an area grossly neglected over the last nine years—and Te Tai Poutini the West Coast where in Hokitika Westport Greymouth busts are being created of my good self. We have allocated funding to ensure that the necessary feasibility study goes ahead to strengthen KiwiRail services into that region and that is a boost of the tourism—something that will please my ministerial colleagues; and in addition to that a sum of money to ensure that the ports—further evidence of neglected infrastructure in the recent past—are repaired. And I'm very confident along with input from industry and elements of the local government community I will continue to deliver fiscal lucre and goodwill to that particular part of the country."