Turei Metiria: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1594. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister: Are Cabinet ministers accountable to the public of New Zealand for their ministerial decisions?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.METIRIA TUREI: Have members of his staff advised Ministers to answer “No comment.” to questions in order to shut down reporters who are inquiring into Government scandals?Mr SPEAKER: The right honourable Prime Minister in so far as there may be ministerial responsibility.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I reject the proposition of the member.Metiria Turei: Well then are Ministers simply following his lead in responding with “No comment.” to political questions after he refused to say when he first heard that the police were investigating Mike Sabin?Mr SPEAKER: I will leave it for the Prime Minister but there is no ministerial responsibility for that.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: When Ministers answer questions as the member will be aware from the Cabinet Manual they must have regard for the public interest and sometimes that means it is not in the public interest to discuss some issues at certain points of time. They can include matters of national security foreign affairs personal privacy and matters before the courts. Although in fairness the member has never been in Government and the Greens never have so they probably do not know how it works.Metiria Turei: Does the Prime Minister stand by his 2010 decision to publish ministerial credit card usage in the interests of “greater transparency and public scrutiny”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes and I think this Government has shown how open and transparent it is.Metiria Turei: Well then how can the public scrutinise Paula Bennett’s management of her ministerial credit card when she responds with “No comment.” to questions about her role and the $1200 misuse of that card?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member misrepresents Paula Bennett. She does not have a ministerial credit card.Metiria Turei: Is the Prime Minister OK then with the Minister for Economic Development not commenting on questions about a $1 million furniture spend-up at his ministry; if so what does he and Mr Joyce have to hide?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well in the last part of the question nothing; in the first part of the question I understand that he was on a plane and like a good former Minister of Transport he would know the rule is that you do not have your phone on when you are in a plane.Metiria Turei: What does his Government have to hide now that Ministers in charge of billions of dollars of public money are regularly answering with “No comment.” to questions about their spending?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Government has nothing to hide. There will be times as I pointed out earlier when it is not in the public interest or possible for a Minister to answer but those situations are few and far between if you actually look at the thousands of parliamentary questions Official Information Act requests and various other written questions that we answer. What I find on this side of the House is that we have a team of people who know each other well work together well and get on well. What I notice with the Greens is—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! There is no responsibility.