Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:623;Page:18755] 
9.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: What specific additional resources has he secured for the 111 system since his press release endorsing the commissioner’s review of the system in October? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 The Commissioner of Police has made no specific request for additional resources. He is able to deploy existing resources as he sees fit. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Will the Minister take responsibility for any calamity that might occur because of his inaction before the review team reports? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Operational matters are the responsibility of the Commissioner of Police. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What is the Minister’s attitude when he is unable to answer simple questions such as: “How do you reconcile today’s statement in the House with that on 8 February?”; what is his attitude when he cannot even do the normal fundamental basic jobs that a Minister of Police is required to do; and why does he not take the advice he gave to the Nelson police when he first became Minister when he said: “If you don’t like your job get another one.”? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The very simple facts are that the police did an investigation and they found that Mr Mark’s allegations were not right and I accept that. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: If the police have all the resources they need as the Minister claimed yesterday why did it take three phone calls and 90 minutes before police responded to a young woman’s distressed 111 call in Wanganui—a young woman who was told on the first call that the police would be there quickly; half an hour later on the second call was told: “We’ll be right there.” and half an hour later again was still waiting for an officer to attend? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: That is why we are having a review. 
Ron Mark 
: Is it not a fact that the reasons this Government—by the Minister’s own admission now—has given no extra funding to deal with the emergency 111 system and why we are continuing to see even more disastrous reports of the failures of the system such as the one in the  
Dominion Post 
 this morning are that this Government has ring-fenced funding for staff around traffic that this Government has a policy that allows traffic police to ignore and not respond to dispatchers’ repeated calls and that this Government simply places a higher priority on ticketing ordinary normally law-abiding New Zealand citizens and raising revenue from our roads? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: No. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It will occur to you that this Minister has been constantly promising the questioner a review that is taking place to sort out the problem. He has said day in day out that that is why they were having a review. None of that circumvents the right of parliamentarians to know now what the facts are and to get political accountability from the Government. He has misused Parliament in that respect and he should be punished by members of Parliament being able to ask a further question. A Minister any Minister could answer every parliamentary question by saying: “We’re having a review. Therefore I cannot tell you.” and that is the tactic that that Minister has employed. If you allow him to get away with that then any old bum can be a Minister of Police. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the last comment of that point of order was unnecessary and I ask the member to withdraw it. It was a reflection on a member and I do not think we should have reflections on members. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Well I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No I have not finished yet. I am ruling. Would the member please be seated. The last question that was asked by the member was not specific. I heard the answer. It gave a direct answer to the question. I thought the answer was “No.” and one cannot get any more direct than that. As far as I am concerned the Minister has addressed the question adequately. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My point is that I asked the Minister for the umpteenth time as to why he is unable to reconcile two diametrically opposite statements. He said: “That is why we are having a review.” None of that is relevant to the review. The review I assume is to do with whether there is a satisfactory response in terms of the resourcing of 111 calls. But our question is about something else. He had a question from Mr Ryall regarding the latest item in the  
Dominion Post 
 this morning about the response to a 111 call taking 91 minutes. We have got no further down the track from a Minister who on most occasions has sought to detour from the fundamental question by talking about a review he is shortly to hold. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Members have the right to ask questions. There is no guarantee from anything I have seen in the Standing Orders that they will be satisfied with the answers. That is the whole point about parliamentary debate in a democracy.