Little Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 29 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9920. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in his Minister responsible for the flag referendum process?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister): Yes I do. In fact I have so much confidence that I designated him Acting Prime Minister while I was out of the country.Andrew Little: In view of the fact that polls during the course of the referendum process repeatedly showed that there was no public appetite for changing the flag does he now think that spending $26 million on flag referenda was the best use of public money?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No and as the member knows the Prime Minister is not a poll-driven fruitcake in the way that he is. On behalf of the Prime Minister I think he would note that despite the fact that it was Labour’s policy to change the flag the members all voted against it.Andrew Little: Why does he think it was better to spend $26 million on a failed flag than on funding a medicine like Keytruda that could save the lives of New Zealanders with advanced melanoma?Hon BILL ENGLISH: That does not make much more sense than asking why it is better to spend money on upgrading the Hercules aircraft for the New Zealand Air Force than it is to spend money on the next most popular drug. The fact is that the Government makes all these decisions in the round and the Prime Minister makes no apology for the leadership that he showed on this issue which led to 43 percent of New Zealanders voting for a change in the flag.Andrew Little: What is more important: $26 million on a failed flag or fixing thousands of State houses that are leaking and mouldy and making our kids sick?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The member may be interested to know that Housing Corporation’s capital expenditure on State houses in the last 12 months was over $590 million including—Hon Member: The kids are getting sick; the houses are mouldy.Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well I would agree with them. It has taken a long time to get on top of the neglect of the previous Labour Government that left us with tens of thousands of damp unhealthy houses. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Again the level of interjection that is coming—and it is coming from both sides of the House—is too loud and disruptive.Andrew Little: Why was it better to spend $26 million on a failed flag than on solving burglaries given the disgraceful fact that over 90 percent of burglaries now go unsolved?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As I said before with reasonable fiscal management the Government gets to do a whole range of positive things for the community at large and for particular groups. The police have had significant pay increases they have had a significant rethinking of their activities and they are doing a very good job of getting crime rates to the lowest they have been in a generation. We can achieve that as well as having a referendum on the flag.Hon Judith Collins: Lowest crime rates since 1978. Thank you New Zealand Police.Andrew Little: That will be about the rising prison—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Just ask the question.Andrew Little: Is he honestly telling New Zealanders that the Prime Minister’s failed legacy project was more important than saving Kiwi lives making our homes fit to live in and making sure our families are safe from criminals?Hon BILL ENGLISH: As we have said earlier when the Government has sound fiscal management it can spend money on a whole range of desirable activities. In fact the debate about the flag has proven to be the most engaging debate about national identity that New Zealand has enjoyed in a long time and it is just a pity that the Labour Party took such a partisan political view of it.