1. Ministers—ConfidenceFLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSMinisters—Confidence1. FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First) to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH (Prime Minister): Yes.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can Kiwis have confidence in either him or the Minister for Economic Development when he himself admitted to being puzzled as to why 92700 Kiwis aged from 15 to 24 are not in employment education or training?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: In respect of our young people the Government has spent a great deal of time and money creating a range of pathways for them from school through training and into work. As the member has pointed out there are a number of young people who are not on those pathways. Some of them have very good reasons for that such as the large group of them who are caring for a family member. Some are overseas. Some will not have good reasons for it and that is why it is important that services like our Youth Service find those young people and work out what we can do to encourage them back on track.Fletcher Tabuteau: If he admitted that the problem with youth not being in employment education or training was just finding them is that not a big admission that his comments of youth being lazy drug-addled layabouts were an appallingly demeaning generalisation?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: No and the member knows that that is not what I said. The member might also know that today's young people in the age group he is talking about—17 to 25—are by and large much better young people than used to be the case when he was that age.Fletcher Tabuteau: If he has finally conceded that New Zealand is a soft entry point for migration to Australia then how can he have confidence in himself and his Minister of Immigration who have been constantly warned about this problem on numerous occasions by New Zealand First?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: Again the member is wrong. I did not say that; what I said was that Australia has in the past said that. We are very confident in our border and immigration controls. What is important is that in a growing economy we need people to do the jobs that have to be done in this economy. Unlike the member's party we do not want to shut down the economy because we do not like some people.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can he have confidence in his Minister of Energy and Resources given the Electricity Authority (EA) has cost New Zealand millions of dollars to achieve absolutely nothing in respect of transmission pricing?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I certainly have confidence in the Minister of Energy and Resources. The member may be aware that actually the Electricity Authority is completely independent of the Minister and whatever decisions it makes about electricity pricing it makes with the statutory protection that this Parliament gave it.Fletcher Tabuteau: If the Electricity Authority is seeking costs from its advisers for doing such a poor job can the rest of the electricity industry on behalf of its consumers seek costs from the EA for such a monumental waste of time and money?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: That would be a technical matter for the lawyers. I cannot second-guess whatever legal process is going on there but it is great to have in New Zealand an electricity market that has led to falling electricity prices when under previous Governments they were going up at the rate of 8 percent per year. We are very pleased with the way the electricity market operates.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can he have confidence in his Ministers when given a $1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund in last year's Budget the number of completed houses under that fund came to zero nil nothing?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: If the member understood the fund he would know that it depends on projects being put forward by councils. It turned out that councils had been saying they were short of money for infrastructure for housing but they were not quite clear on which projects actually needed it. Now they are taking the fund seriously and they are negotiating. But we cannot give out a dollar until there is a project to give it to. I know that is not how that member's party works but that is how we work.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can he have confidence in his Minister of Conservation's continued policy by press release" when this Government's real commitment to conservation is just $5.31 per hectare on animal pests and just $1.64 per hectare on noxious weeds?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I have complete confidence in the Minister of Conservation. In fact no Government has done such a good job of taking a long-term view about how to be good stewards of our conservation estate nor has any of them spent more money nor has any of them had the aspiration or the vision to strive for a predator-free New Zealand.David Seymour: Does the Prime Minister have confidence in his Minister of Immigration in light of news today that a former Minister of Immigration allowed William Yan into the country against officials' advice and he has today pleaded guilty to laundering $40 million?Mr SPEAKER: Order! The first part of the question is in order—"Does he have confidence in the Minister of Immigration?".Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes I do have confidence in the Minister of Immigration who had nothing to do with that decision.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can he have confidence in this Government's biosecurity record and its Minister when between 2008 and April 2016 there have been 148 biosecurity emergencies with myrtle rust unfortunately among the latest?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I do have confidence in our biosecurity arrangements which are much more sophisticated than they used to be because of considerable investment and a lot of smart policy. But in fact the number of emergencies the member refers to tell us just how often our system is picking up incursions. In fact incursions are not something determined by the Government. The myrtle rust for example has come windblown from Australia. I know the member thinks that his policy might have been able to stop that but actually that is just how the world works."