Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Nick: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7907] 
7.  
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (NZ National—Nelson) 
 to the  
Minister for Land Information 
: Does he agree with the Prime Minister’s statement that the amount of foreshore in private ownership is a “very small amount”; if not why not? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Minister for Land Information) 
: 
 Yes. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Noting that in the Parliament yesterday the Minister said that the Department of Conservation the Prime Minister and the former Registrar-General of Land Mr Brian Hayes were all wrong and that public access was wrong will he now apologise to this Parliament for his incorrect statement made last week and yesterday to the public for his incorrect statement made on Television New Zealand to the Department of Conservation office solicitor for wrongly besmirching her reputation and also to— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is three questions. Two questions are allowed. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Will the Minister also apologise to the people of Nelson— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No. Two of those questions can be answered. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: As I have noted a number of times this is a highly complex issue. Yesterday in the House I pointed out that nobody in the history of this country has ever sized the issue. At this particular point in time Land Information New Zealand is working assiduously to size it. Once it is sized the information will be made available. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: On what basis did the Minister make his initial assessment regarding the coastline? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I made it clear at the time that my statements were based on Land Information New Zealand’s advice which was drawn from its preliminary work in the area. I have made information available as it comes to hand in a bid to inform the public of New Zealand at the earliest possible time. In 1993 the Hon Dr Nick Smith told this House that access to our beautiful coastline was a very complex issue. He said: “We should not mislead the public about exactly what those legal provisions are in terms of this complex issue of access. I invite Opposition members to be a little bit more responsible about the way in which they present this issue.” 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Does the Minister remember writing a letter to me and offering his services on the question of statistics and figures and receiving a reply stating that we do not waste our time with fools; and was it the case that he himself got his advice from Lianne Dalziel and that they should both be resigning now? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: No no. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Why did the Minister when his error was exposed not admit that he had made it up and had got it wrong and fess up and say sorry? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I do not know where that member gets his information from—it is probably from Rodney Hide. I tell him that there have been no errors in anything that I have indicated. As I have said time and time again 36 percent of 18700 kilometres of coastline as at 1 August is in private hands potentially subject to review by Land Information New Zealand. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Having told the  
New Zealand Herald  
last Tuesday that there were significant chunks of foreshore in private ownership and that we were talking about more than hundreds of kilometres to repeat the error on Television New Zealand on Wednesday on  
Holmes 
 to say again on Thursday that that was true and there were hundreds of kilometres and to then put out a press statement on Friday saying that I was incorrect— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The question is too long. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: It is not my fault he gets it wrong so often. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Carry on with the question. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Would you like me to start again? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No ask the question. 
Hon Roger Sowry 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. From time to time people do have long questions just as there are long answers. Mr Anderton for example regularly gives a long answer—or as regularly as he is asked questions by Progressive. The issue here is your interrupting of a member when he is asking a question. I ask you to be a bit reasonable about it. There is a view that you are being a bit selective in the way that you are interrupting on Mr Smith. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am not. Mr Smith yesterday had a very very long question indeed. I had a look at it and decided that on the grounds of fairness I would allow him to have the full question. [ 
Interruption 
] No it was an oral question. It was one of the longest by far that I have had asked in the House this year. Today I allowed the member to ask three questions on question No. 5 and was going on with a fourth. The member must come to the question concisely. I refer him to Speaker’s ruling 126/2. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: The Minister having said on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday that the amount in private ownership was a third does he now not owe an apology to all the parties including the thousand people who protested in Nelson— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: And to Parliament. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: —and to Parliament as my colleague Winston Peters says—who he said were wrong when they campaigned for foreshores for all because the whole lot was in private ownership? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I feel the sense of frustration as that member grapples with complex issues. I will break it down quite simply. It is an issue of sizing. To some people the Hon Roger Sowry might be small. To a dwarf he might be big. The reality is— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I am trying to give a sizing— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member knows that I do not like reference to people or personal comments and I want the Minister to stand withdraw and apologise. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Please answer the question itself. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: As I have said repeatedly as and when the information becomes specific and we can start talking about some facts that will be made available. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Mine was a very specific question which was whether he would apologise. He told Parliament something twice. He has now come to the House today having accepted that the Prime Minister is correct and is it not proper that he owes Parliament an apology? For God’s sake he is the Minister for Land Information. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member is not raising a point of order but a political point. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I seek leave to table two letters and I want to itemise them. One is a letter from John Tamihere offering his services on the question of facts and figures and the other is my reply saying one long “There’s a good boy!”. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table those. Is there any objection? There is.