Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:623;Page:18657] 
1. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: What are the details if any she first received including the date and from whom regarding the problems with NCEA and what directions did she give at that time? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I have not had advice about the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) but in respect of scholarship I was first alerted by the Minister of Education to concerns about the overall pass rates for scholarship on the weekend of 15 and 16 January. I was first alerted to the likelihood of the variability of results across subjects on the evening of 25 January by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet with further information arriving the following evening. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why did the Prime Minister have such a huge amount of time between 15 and 16 January and the later date she gave when in fact by the 17th via an email to the Minister’s office the issue of the subject results with the huge variability was before the Minister of Education? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I can confirm that the New Zealand Qualifications Authority did indeed send an email to the Minister’s and Associate Minister’s offices on 17 January. I am absolutely satisfied from the investigation I have made that the Minister of Education and the Associate Minister did not have their attention drawn to that email until late on 25 January. 
Deborah Coddington 
: Would the Prime Minister care to reconsider her answers when any rational person would have seen problems with NCEA 7 years ago when it was first put up by the National Party and opposed by the ACT party? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I think it is important not to confuse NCEA with scholarship. We are dealing with quite different issues here. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Prime Minister confirm her statement to the House just now that the Minister of Education advised her about pass rates in scholarship on the weekend of 15 and 16 January; and how does she square that with the statement she has just made that on 17 January an email to the Minister’s office from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority contained no alert that there were problems? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: What I was alerted to by the Minister was that the overall number of passes in scholarship was fewer than had been expected. What I advised the House just now was that on 17January the New Zealand Qualifications Authority emailed staff in the Minister’s office. The Minister did not have that drawn to his attention until late on the 25th. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Did anyone—[ 
Interruption 
]  
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is the one warning I am giving today. The member had already started his question. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Did anyone inform the Prime Minister— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take some exception to your lecturing of this side of the House in that fashion. There was no interjection on the speaker. There may have been some conversation between two bench colleagues but that is not unreasonable. The fact is that the Prime Minister’s answers so far are laughable and were laughed at. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No. The member is now trifling with me and the Chair. I tell him that he will not do that again today. I heard the interjection as did a lot of other members. The member himself knows who made it. I am not going to identify him but he knows who it was. 
John Carter 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I too heard the comment but I take exception to the fact that there was a suggestion it was an interjection. It was a comment made by a member not an interjection. I take exception to the fact that you are suggesting it was. It was not an interjection on the Prime Minister who had just resumed her seat. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It was an interjection after the member had started his question. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: Did anyone inform the Prime Minister during the period in question that it was not necessary to have students’ scripts returned in order to moderate the scholarship marks statistically; and is it not true that such a recommendation was rejected because it would have meant taking scholarships off some students who had already been awarded them? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I have not dealt with the issue in that detail. My first thought when I was given the figures as to the range of passes subject by subject was whether the papers should be called back in re-marked and moderated. I was told that that could not be done because they had already gone out to the students. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why is the Government blaming the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for not alerting the Minister to problems with scholarship on 17 January when she has just told the House that the Minister of Education advised her on the weekend of 15 and 16 January—the day before the Qualifications Authority is meant to have let the Minister down? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: There are two points at issue. The first is the overall low rate in scholarship which the Minister alerted me to as I have said on 15 and 16 January because he wished to bring a paper to Cabinet about that. The other issue is the variability of results across subjects which both he and I—[ 
Interruption 
] No I am sorry but members have obviously studied it very little if they think it is the same thing—became aware of on 25 January. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why would the Prime Minister’s Minister of Education—having been given the provisional picture from the provisional results on 14 January and having alerted her on 15 or 16 January as she said—take all the way to 25 January to understand just how serious the issue was? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The Minister was advised that there were fewer scholarships awarded overall than were expected. That is why he asked to bring a paper to Cabinet.