9. Todd Barclay—Southland Electorate Office Allegations Prime Ministerial ConductTRACEY MARTIN (NZ First) to the Prime MinisterTodd Barclay—Southland Electorate Office Allegations Prime Ministerial Conduct9. TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First) to the Prime Minister: In his prime ministerial capacity does he stand by all his statements on the Clutha-Southland electorate office issue even if facts known to him make doing so extraordinarily difficult; if so how?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH (Prime Minister): Those statements were not made in my prime ministerial capacity.Tracey Martin: In light of recent comments he has made as Prime Minister was he deliberately being dismissive about recordings because one intercepted conversation involved talk of sex and drugs as reported by Newsroom?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I have nothing to add to what has been covered by a 10-month police investigation. I understand the police are reopening that investigation.Tracey Martin: In light of recent comments he has made as Prime Minister is he deliberately attempting to mislead because the facts known to him include matters relating to sex and drugs? Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: As I said I have nothing to add to what has been a 10-month police investigation—an investigation that is now being reopened.Tracey Martin: In light of recent comments he has made as Prime Minister when his text read Everyone unhappy." was he referring to the huge settlement or was it because he knew the contents of the recording included sex and drugs matters?Mr SPEAKER: In so far as there may be prime ministerial responsibility the right honourable Prime Minister.Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I reject the member's assertions but as I have said before this was a matter of two people who fell out very intensively and that has had a lot of implications. I would hope they can find some resolution to their differences.Tracey Martin: As Prime Minister has he attempted to contact Glenys Dickson to apologise for her treatment by a member of his Government; if not why not?Mr SPEAKER: Again in so far as there is prime ministerial responsibility the right honourable Prime Minister.Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I have no prime ministerial responsibility for that.Richard Prosser: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. With regard to this line of questioning which has been going on for the last couple of days I seek your guidance with regard to Speakers' rulings 175/1 and to a lesser degree 173/3 and 173/4 all of which touch on the same subject. The fact that a Minister has no legal control over a certain action does not mean there is no ministerial responsibility to answer a question. Speaker's ruling 175(1) says: "nevertheless the Minister assumes the political responsibility to the House to answer questions on those matters." I know that you have made reference to Speakers' rulings 173/1 and 173/2; it appears to me that 173/3 173/4 and 175/1 are almost the polar opposite of those and do seem to play out that in some circumstances even though the Minister does not have ministerial or legal responsibility he does have a political responsibility to the House to answer those questions.Mr SPEAKER: The Speakers' rulings on page 175 particularly refer to operational matters. I am comfortable that you can go through Speakers' rulings and find many that appear to contradict each other. The ones that are pertinent in these cases are certainly the ones that I have used consistently over the last week and have done so in two rulings to the House now and they apply particularly to pages 172 and 173. But I do thank the member for his assistance."