Woods Megan: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 23 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:215. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]12.Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram)to the Minister of Police: What is the annual cost of economic crime in New Zealand?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister of Police):An annual cost of economic crime is difficult to accurately identify but I have seen a draft report that indicates the cost of economic crime to be in the range of around $6 billion to $9 billion.Dr Megan Woods: Why was the Cost of Economic Crime Report of the Serious Fraud Office not completed?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Considerable work was done on that report to estimate the figure including reviewing and adapting similar pieces of work from around the world. But it became clear that the proposed methodology largely developed overseas was not directly applicable to the New Zealand context. So as a consequence the Serious Fraud Office in consultation with other Government agencies ended that body of work.Dr Megan Woods: Was the Ministry of Justice consulted regarding the decision not to proceed with the Serious Fraud Office’s report on the cost of economic crime in New Zealand?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: As far as I am aware the answer to that question is yes.Dr Megan Woods: Was the former Minister of Justice Judith Collins in any way involved in the decision not to proceed with the Serious Fraud Office’s report on the cost of economic crime in New Zealand?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: I am not in a position to be able to answer that question. I do not have any knowledge but I would be very happy to consider it if the member puts it down in writing.Dr Megan Woods: I seek leave to table a document that shows that the office of the former Minister of Justice Judith Collins provided a copy of the Serious Fraud Office’s scale of fraud report under the Official Information Act to a requester in January 2014.Mr SPEAKER: What is the source of the document?Dr Megan Woods: The document is a table of fulfilled Official Information Act requests compiled by the office of the current Minister of Justice the Hon Amy Adams. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am not exactly sure what the document is to be honest and I do not want to consider putting the leave just because a member—[Interruption] Order! I ask Dr Megan Woods and without interjection what the document is.Dr Megan Woods: It is a list of Official Information Act requests that the Minister—Mr SPEAKER: But they have already been released.Dr Megan Woods: It shows that the Minister of Justice—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I now understand that the documents were obtained by the Official Information Act and they have been released so they are available to everybody anyway. Is that right? [Interruption] Order! Could the member just try to explain the document to me simply?Dr Megan Woods: Yes it is a table of Official Information Act requests that the Minister of Justice fulfilled showing that she had a copy of the report in January 2014.Mr SPEAKER: The easiest way—[Interruption] Order! I am going to put the leave. [Interruption] Order! There are too many interjections on these points of order. I am going to put the leave and the House can decide. Leave is sought to table that particular table listing Official Information Act documents. Is there any objection to that being tabled in this House? There is not. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Dr Megan Woods: I seek leave to table a transcript of the then Minister of Police—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Where is the transcript from?Dr Megan Woods: It is a draft transcript of the estimates hearing of the Law and Order Committee—Mr SPEAKER: No. The member can resume her seat. That is available.Dr Megan Woods: Did the former Minister of Justice Judith Collins support the decision to abandon any further investigation by the Serious Fraud Office on the cost of economic crime in New Zealand?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: I am not in a position to be able to answer that question but if the member puts the question down in writing I would be very happy to give her a response.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just want to raise an issue with you that relates to the previous ruling regarding that exchange around the tabling of the document by Megan Woods in which you indicated that a document released under the Official Information Act was publicly available. Official Information Act documents are typically released to one person—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not need any further assistance. The difficulty was the way the document was explained. It was very very difficult for me to comprehend what it was that we were dealing with. When I finally realised that it was simply a table of documents that had been released—listen the House has decided. It has been tabled. That is the end of the matter.