King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:661;Page:9836] 
2. 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
 on behalf of the  
Prime Minister 
: Yes. 
Hon Annette King 
: Does he agree with the Minister for Social Development and Employment that her welfare reforms which breach the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act would not bother most people and that “it is a discrimination that most New Zealanders will see as being fair and reasonable.”; if so why? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes. If the Government chooses not to work test older women who have been on the widows benefit I think most people would regard that as a fair amount of discrimination. 
Hon Annette King 
: In light of that answer why does he believe that the children of widows are more deserving of support from his Government than the children of widowers? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government has made a series of decisions across a package known as Future Focus. It happens that the Attorney-General has made a statement to Parliament according to the requirements of Parliament that says that those changes are discriminatory. However the Government is free under those procedures to proceed with its policy. 
Hon Annette King 
: Does he agree with the Minister for Social Development and Employment who said that there are jobs out there for everyone or with Paul Henry who said on  
Breakfast 
 that if Paula Bennett believed that she was living in cloud-cuckoo-land? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The good news today is that the released economic figures show that the economy is growing and creating new jobs. It is an aspiration of this Government that everyone who is on welfare should be looking for work. Actually quite a lot of them are finding work. 
Hon Annette King 
: How can he have confidence in his Minister of State Services who told this House last week that there were no plans to close the Blenheim Accident Compensation Corporation office only for its closure to be announced today? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Prime Minister has great confidence in the Minister of State Services because he is a much better Minister of State Services than the previous Minister was. 
Hon Annette King 
: I do not think the last part of the question— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is this a point of order? 
Hon Annette King 
: It is a point of order. I know it is a common practice of the Deputy Prime Minister— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No no. With the nature of the questions being asked inevitably there will be a political element to the answers. The member well knows that and she cannot use a point of order to say that. 
Hon Annette King 
: Has he ensured that the Minister of Energy and Resources has consulted with the Minister of Tourism over the potential conflict of prospecting for minerals on Dun Mountain at the same time as he is advocating for a national cycleway through the same area? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes. 
Hon Annette King 
: Which analogy is accurate: his comparison of Whanau Ora to a waterbed or the comparison by the Minister of Energy and Resources of mining to a date scone? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Both analogies are of course appropriate. I am impressed with the talent of my colleagues. They are able to make cut-through statements that even the Opposition can understand.