Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:619;Page:14667] 
5.  
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Minister of Maori Affairs 
: Does he have confidence in the board of the Maori Language Commission; if not why not? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Associate Minister of Maori Affairs) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Maori Affairs 
: Yes. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Will the Minister be asking Dr James Buwalda Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Labour to give advice to Dr Hohepa on how best to get rid of a staff member who has annoyed the Government; if not will he call upon his own considerable experience as a senior State servant and seller of Labour Party raffle tickets to bring in new guidelines for politically active civil servants? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: No. To bring the House up to date I have been advised that the board has acknowledged by way of writing to the Minister that an error of judgment has been made by its chief executive. He has been censured by the board. The board is working with the State Services Commission and Te PuniKokiri to make sure that there are clear guidelines in place for the Maori Language Commission’s staff in terms of appropriate conduct. Finally the board will take these matters into account when the chief executive officer’s employment contract comes up for review in May of 2005. The Minister is extraordinarily comfortable with that result from the commission. 
Jill Pettis 
: Can the Minister please advise the House what are the key achievements of the Maori Language Commission? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: This is another reason why we have confidence in the board. Highlights to name four very quickly include a leading-edge joint initiative entered into between the commission and Microsoft with regard to the promotion of the language; it has won the prestigious 2004 Computerworld award for the Matapuna Dictionary Database System; it promotes the Maori language internationally through the International Polynesian Language Forum and brings New Zealand into a great vista in that regard; and finally it leads the promotion of te reo through the Maori Language Week in partnership with the Human Rights Commission. This Government has significantly increased its investment in the promotion of the language and the commission is doing a fine job in that regard. 
Tariana Turia 
: Can the Minister explain to the House the difference between an employee of a Crown agency and an employee of a Crown entity and does an employee of a Crown entity participate in the Crown policy process? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: All employees who source their dollar values from the Queen’s shilling have a range of conducts to live up to. Maori civil servants in particular do not have standards that are lesser than others which that member might well want. 
Tariana Turia 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister did not answer my question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister might not have answered it to the member’s satisfaction but I thought he addressed it. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Can we take it from the Minister’s previous answer that Mr Piripi is not going to be required to resign that he has simply been slapped with a wet bus ticket and that the new standard is that State servants can attack the Government Parliament and the Leader of the Opposition and suffer very little consequence for it? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: Censure and discipline are a matter between the employing commission and the chief executive officer. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Is the real reason the Minister feels obliged to express confidence in the Maori Language Commission because virtually every Maori in New Zealand thinks that the Government’s foreshore legislation is confiscation; if that is not so would the Minister care to name any person who is qualified to be on the Maori Language Commission who ought to be its chief executive—apart from his Labour Maori colleagues—who can speak Maori and who does not believe that the Government’s legislation is confiscation? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: No and I will come back to the member on the second part of his question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Has the Government received reports on a most curious circumstance—Mr Prebble’s almost 100 percent Maori thinking it is confiscation and Mr Brash and the National Party saying that Maori got all they wanted? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is not in relation to this Minister’s portfolio or this particular question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would not ordinarily raise the point but Mr Prebble put it in contention you did not rule it out and therefore I think it is now in as an appropriate issue about which I can ask a supplementary question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No Mr Prebble asked him about the chair of the commission and the people concerned. He directly related it to the original question. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Noting his previous answers can the Minister tell the House specifically what penalty Haami Piripi has paid for his indiscretions? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: The matters that I alerted the member to with regard to the commission’s response to its chief executive officer are the only details I have at the moment. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I ask you to consider that answer. Are we to accept that the Minister knows only what is in a press release and that there is no communication between the Minister’s office and the Maori Language Commission? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member cannot ask me that question. It is not my job as Speaker. I do not have knowledge of every detail of every question; nor should I. I have to agree as to whether the question was addressed and it was. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My point of order is that while you do not have to know the details of activity you do have to determine whether a question is addressed. I am asking you whether it is acceptable for a Minister to come into the House and firstly give an answer to a question that relates to information he is supposed to have in front of him and then later concede that the information is only by way of press release and expect the House to believe there has been no communication between him and the agency he is responsible for? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not need any assistance. I ruled that was a proper response and it was. [ 
Interruption 
] The member will stand withdraw and apologise for that comment because it was directed at me. It was in the second person. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I apologise. It was not directed at you. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If that is the case I accept the member’s word. 
Rodney Hide 
: In light of the widespread concern that there is a witch-hunt under way against Maori civil servants who have a view different from the Government can the Minister shed any light on the involvement of his colleague the Hon John Tamihere in the resignation of a senior Department of Labour employee; if not why not? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister can answer as Minister of Maori Affairs. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: The Minister has consulted Mr Tamihere and as part of that consultation process the reality is no. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think the House does deserve a little bit of clarification. Is the Minister’s answer that the Minister of Maori Affairs has consulted with the Hon John Tamihere and as a consequence of that consultation the Minister of Maori Affairs like the rest of the country is no further ahead in understanding quite what John Tamihere was up to? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister gave an absolutely direct answer. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I seek the leave of the House to table a piece of correspondence forwarded to the Minister of Maori Affairs by the Maori Language Commission identifying the range of issues it is going to clarify. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.