King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:674;Page:20248] 
4. 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by his statement regarding a bipartisan approach to children’s welfare in New Zealand that “It’s tricky because ultimately it’s about spending decisions across a whole lot of different areas you need to consider”? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. 
Hon Annette King 
: Is he again ruling out a cross-party approach to children’s policy in New Zealand as he did in November 2009? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: It depends on what the member means by that. If the member is asking whether different political parties in Parliament can work together to try to tackle issues like child abuse and the like then I think Parliament has a role for that and political parties should try to work together. If I were to characterise the mood of Parliament I would say there is a universal view that all parliamentarians in all political parties want to work to address that issue. But I think we also need to be realistic and say that political parties have a different approach to different issues. There would be many areas where Labour would simply not agree with National in terms of its approach to this area and vice versa and to pretend otherwise would actually be an inaccurate way of portraying that. We are far better to have what will happen on 26 November—it is called a general election—and put our policies to the people of New Zealand. 
Hon Annette King 
: Is he aware that a significant number of major organisations working with children in New Zealand are asking for a cross-party approach to children’s policy—that is that the parties in this House sit down and work together on what we ought to be doing for children in New Zealand; if so would he not at least sit down with other parties in this House to see what agreement there could be on a future pathway and what could be achieved? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes I am aware of other organisations calling for that. Secondly I think the green paper process actually allows different stakeholders and interested parties to come together to debate those issues. Thirdly I refer the member to the letter that she wrote to me on 28 July. In paragraph 3 of the letter it goes on to say in relation to cross-party support “It would require genuine involvement—shared decision-making.” We are the Government and by definition we are held to account as being the Government and I think that makes that very difficult. 
Hon Annette King 
: Does he agree with Sir Peter Gluckman and Lord Robert Winston speaking on  
Q+A  
last weekend that investing in the early years of a child’s life will have long-term benefits; if so why is his starting point to talk about short-term spending decisions rather than seeking an agreement on what needs to be done? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes and we are not: we have a green paper to do exactly that. 
Hon Annette King 
: So why then did the Prime Minister rule out talking to other parties and say it was tricky because we have to talk about spending priorities? Why not talk about what we need to do for children—and there are commitments from parties all around this House—rather than being so arrogant as to say he will not sit down and talk? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I am happy to talk to parties and I am sure the Minister who has responsibility in this area will be more than happy to engage with the Labour Party and other political parties that are interested in this area. But the reality is that in the end there will be a variety of decisions that will need to be made as a result of that and it is very unlikely that there will be bipartisan support on all of those.