Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17310. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) to theMinister of Justice: Was the employer of the senior Chinese border control official who she had dinner with in Beijing in October 2013 on her Ministerial visit to China from the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine also known as the AQSIQ?Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice): It was a private dinner for which I do not have ministerial responsibility. But as I have previously acknowledged to the Prime Minister and to the media the cumulative effect of the events in China meant there was a risk of a perception of a conflict of interest. I have apologised widely for not seeing that risk earlier and providing more information.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In terms of the actual question that was asked I invite you to consider whether a response that says that a Minister who was on a ministerial visit to China and who met with an official of the Chinese Government can claim that she has no ministerial responsibility. It was quite clearly not a private dinner if there was a Chinese official present. She has ministerial responsibility to answer that question. It went through the normal processes. You accepted that she has ministerial responsibility.Mr SPEAKER: I did last week and I still do today. The Minister has now addressed that question. I fully accept that that is not to the satisfaction of the member. It is again as I said now the responsibility of this House and the public to judge. I will allow the member an additional supplementary question to move the matter forward.Grant Robertson: Did she meet a senior Chinese border official from the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine also known as the AQSIQ during her ministerial visit to China in October 2013?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I had no ministerial visits with any such person.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question I asked was not about visits; it was about whether she met with any of those people. She did not address that question.Mr SPEAKER: The member is now looking for a direct yes or no answer which he cannot insist on. The member has had the ability to use a second supplementary question. Again that was not answered to the member’s satisfaction and I accept that. The answer now is to move forward with further supplementary questions.Grant Robertson: Was the senior Chinese border official at the dinner someone who could have influenced whether or notOravida’s products gained entry into China?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: It was a private dinner. There was no business discussed.Grant Robertson: How can it have been a private dinner when there was a senior Chinese border official present?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Even officials are allowed to have private dinners.Grant Robertson: Did she discuss with any ofOravida’s three directors before she left New Zealand on her ministerial visit any of the issues that Oravida was having with testing requirements for its products to enter China? Answer truthfully.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Hon Judith Collins—and without the last part thank you.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Would he like to ask that again?Mr SPEAKER: Sorry—is the Minister saying she did not quite hear the question?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I could not hear him over the interjections from—Mr SPEAKER: OK we will have the question again please.Grant Robertson: Did she discuss with any ofOravida’s three directors before she left New Zealand on her ministerial visit any of the issues that Oravida was having with testing requirements for its products to enter China?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Obviously not because I did not think it had any problems.Grant Robertson: That is a good answer. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am just waiting for some assistance from your colleague.Grant Robertson: Was she aware ofOravida’s request to her fellow Ministers Tim Groser and Nathan Guy for ministerial intervention to gain access forOravida’s products into China before she went on her ministerial trip in October 2013?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Certainly not.Grant Robertson: Does the Minister understand that by refusing to rule out that she met with an official from the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine she leaves open the perception that she went to China to make sure that her husband’s company’s products got entry; and will she now rule out that she met someone from the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine while she was in China?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Answering the first part of that rather long question—well of course the member knows fully well I was invited in July 2013 by the Ministry of Justice in China to attend.