Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:658;Page:7546] 
1. Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by his statement “Let’s have teachers taking less of a pay rise so it can be put toward education support staff”? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
 on behalf of the  
Prime Minister 
: I think it is worth noting that the comment was made by the Prime Minister in a circumstance where he was being— 
Hon Member 
: Who is the Prime Minister today? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am answering on behalf of the Prime Minister—[ 
Interruption 
] Is this a point of order or not? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I apologise to the honourable member. The Hon David Cunliffe will be a little careful. He not only interjected loudly during a point of order but has continued to interject while I am on my feet. I accept that the member apologises for that. 
Hon Bill English 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Just so the member can relax I was delayed—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I thought that a point of order was being raised by the Hon Bill English. I have accepted a point of order and it will be heard in silence. 
Hon Bill English 
: I was delayed by answering questions from the media in relation to an issue the member raised yesterday in the House. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I think it is a fair point and we have raised it a number of times. I do not want to use the word “ambush” but sometimes it is very difficult to meet the obligations of talking to the media and being in the House on time. I was in the House about 7 minutes before question time began and I had passed Mr English who was in discussion with the media at that time. It is not as though there was not an attempt to get here. That is why I was answering initially. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: This is not strictly a point of order at all. I must make it very clear to Ministers that this House takes absolute priority. Talking to the media is absolutely no reason whatsoever to be late if Ministers wish to be able to answer their own questions. I would like the Government to sort out who is answering this question. It has been asked by the honourable Leader of the Opposition to the Prime Minister and I will call whoever wishes to take the call. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You cannot remove yourself from the circumstances entirely because you are in charge of the parliamentary complex. It is unreasonable to suggest that a Minister being held up by the media on his way to the House is not your concern. I raised a matter which I think we need to sort out over a period of time by way of an explanation of why I was answering for the Prime Minister today. I suggest that the way forward might be to invite the Leader of the Opposition to ask his question again. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not need any further assistance on this matter. Let me make it very clear: as I observe what goes on outside the Chamber as members seek to come to this Parliament there is absolutely no physical barrier to members coming here. If they choose to continue to talk to the media that is their decision. It is also equally the Government’s decision as to who answers any question. The honourable Leader of the Opposition has asked his question. Maybe to ensure that members have not forgotten the question he asked I invite the honourable Leader of the Opposition to ask his question again. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: Is it Rick? Is it Darren? 
Hon Phil Goff 
: If the person who was going to answer the question would shut up— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No I will not tolerate any more of this at all. I call the honourable Leader of the Opposition to ask his question but if he does that again he will lose it. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Does he stand by his statement “Let’s have teachers taking less of a pay rise so it can be put toward education support staff”? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes and the Prime Minister also pointed out that these staff who are regarded as being low paid find themselves in that position after 9 years under Labour where teachers had significant pay increases and education support staff did not. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why is the Prime Minister advising teachers to take a cut in their real incomes when he has been absolutely silent about chief executives taking huge bonuses while laying off their workers often without any redundancy payments? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: If the member is referring to chief executives in the public sector I can absolutely assure him that the bonuses and pay rates of the chief executives are entirely due to the actions of the previous Labour Government. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Does he agree with the statement made by his Minister of Finance that workers in the public sector should have zero wage increases for 5 years—a comment that the Minister of Finance made while accepting a huge increase in his own housing allowance? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No because the Minister of Finance did not say that. What the Minister of Finance said was that because of the extravagance of the previous Government we have to contain Government spending and that public services should not expect new money for the next 3 to 5 years. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is the Prime Minister expecting ordinary hard-working Kiwis to take cuts to their incomes through imposing demands on State-owned enterprises to increase their dividends thus increasing power prices so that the Government could take another half a billion dollars a year in those dividends out of the pockets of ordinary New Zealanders? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before I call the honourable member I say that the question is getting a fair way away from the primary question but if the Hon Bill English feels capable of answering it that is fine. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: That is a bit rich coming from Labour which when in Government extracted record dividends from State-owned enterprises along with consistently record power price increases. In fact under Labour power prices went up at something like 6 or 7 percent a year for the last 4 or 5 years. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is the Prime Minister therefore saying that the letter from the Minister for State Owned Enterprises to the State-owned enterprises in order to get a better return for the Government and therefore push power prices up was right or wrong? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The member should not confuse price with performance. These organisations have suffered for the last 10 years under the Labour Government. They became fat and lazy and we have had to sort out their performance. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: Kia ora—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The House will come to a little order. I have called Te Ururoa Flavell and I would appreciate it if he were shown some courtesy. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: Kia ora Mr Speaker. What is being done to invest in key support staff such as those focused on improving levels of literacy and numeracy which is one of the Maori Party policy priorities attached to the confidence and supply agreement with National? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government supports the view of the Maori Party that we should focus on literacy and numeracy and on improving the levels of achievement among our children. In that respect the Government has committed about $36 million over the next few years to assist schools in delivering national standards and most important in assisting those children who need more help in order to achieve at adequate levels.