King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 30 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:10202. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
5. 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Does she agree with all recent comments by her Associate Minister the Hon Tariana Turia? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I do 99.9 percent of the time. 
Hon Annette King 
: When her Associate Minister Tariana Turia claimed on Radio New Zealand on Tuesday that: “At the last minute we were given a copy of the reforms. That makes it really difficult to have an input into them.” was she given a copy of the proposed benefit reforms called Future Focus announced last week or a copy of the social services 2008 National Party manifesto? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: As has been quite clearly identified over the last few days it is a policy we have been working on for a long time. It was in our manifesto which we obviously went into the election with. There have been many different versions of it as it went through the normal process. So she has seen the manifesto she has seen the proposal at the end—the last one—and she saw many copies of it in between as well. 
Hon Annette King 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I made that question very precise. In light of Tariana Turia saying she was given a copy of the policy at the last minute I asked the Minister whether it was a copy of the proposal announced last week or whether it was a copy of the National Party manifesto. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: As I pointed out there have been many different versions that the Minister has seen. I cannot possibly make a comment on which one she was talking about at that time. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That seems a reasonable answer to that question. Although the member said it was a precise question if one takes the question in its totality there is no specific answer to it given the various versions of the policy that exist as the Minister has explained. It is a difficult question to answer any more precisely. 
Hon Annette King 
: When she stated in Parliament on Tuesday that the policy had been through the normal process many times including consultation with the Maori Party on 16 February well after her Associate Minister returned to work was she consulting on proposals agreed in principle by Cabinet on 14 December? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: And other developments since then. The member can cut and slice this however she likes. There is no great conspiracy theory. The reality is that there is an immense amount of respect and admiration from me for Minister Turia and I think she has it in return. I think the work we are doing for children and whanau in this country will be better than we have seen in many many years. 
Hon Annette King 
: What was her response to the statement of the Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment the Hon Tariana Turia on 15 January issued considerably earlier than she said she would return to work stating that she intended to challenge the Minister and seek a meeting with her in January to go over the proposed benefit changes because the changes had not been discussed with her? Did this meeting take place? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Minister Turia mentioned yesterday that she had been away for some time so no there had not been a meeting with her prior to that conversation. The member is obviously quoting from 15 January. It is a relationship that is healthy and that is dynamic; we have conversation. We challenge different areas of the portfolio— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am sure it is of great interest what the relationship is but that is not what the member asked. The member asked specifically what the Minister’s response was to an alleged document of 15 January if I remember the question correctly from the Associate Minister Tariana Turia. Given the primary question the member may not have that information available today but I think some attempt to answer that would be helpful to the House rather than an explanation of the wider relationship. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I heard a quote that she gave from the radio interview I presume not a particular paper at that time. I was merely getting to the crux of the relationship which is what I think this whole conversation is about. I do not think the papers will be running a special edition on the conspiracies of the Labour Party on the relationships that we have with the Maori Party. 
Hon Annette King 
: In light of the obvious confusion about the meaning of consultation with her Associate Minister can she guarantee that the recent consultation has sorted out that there will be no preferential treatment in Whanau Ora as promised by the Prime Minister there will be around $1 billion available for the policy as indicated by Tariana Turia and that Te Puni Kokiri will be running Whanau Ora as implied by the Minister of Maori Affairs? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: The only people who I am hearing who are confused about consultation are members on the other side of this House.