Norman Russel: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 28 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:249. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]1.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green)to the Prime Minister: Did he tell Cameron Slater that he recognised the mother of a car crash victim—a young man described by Mr Slater as “a feral”—from his Pike River meetings?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister):Yes as I stated publicly when this matter came up during the election campaign. I would note that I did not use the language paraphrased in Mr Slater’s stolen emails.Dr Russel Norman: Was Cameron Slater correct to tell Television New Zealand that the Prime Minister texted Mr Slater to say that the Prime Minister recognised the mother of the dead car crash victim Judd Hall as being the same person he had encountered at Pike River meetings?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not believe that to be correct. I believe that the only conversation I had with him in my capacity as leader of the National Party was one on the telephone.Dr Russel Norman: Why did the Prime Minister text Mr Slater to say that he recognised the mother of the Greymouth crash victim Judd Hall described by Mr Slater as “a feral” who did the world a favour by dying? Why did the Prime Minister give that information to Mr Slater?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not believe I did. As I said I had a phone conversation in my capacity as leader of the National Party and as part of that phone conversation the particular woman in question was raised. From memory I said to him that I recognised her from Pike River. That was the extent of it as I recall it. I do not have a copy of my text messages.Dr Russel Norman: Is this the correct sequence of events: he was notified that Whale Oil had posted an answerphone recording of Mrs Hall on Slater’s blog he listened to the recording and recognised Mrs Hall’s voice from the Pike River meetings then he contacted Cameron Slater to tell him he recognised her?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No.Dr Russel Norman: Given that he recognised Joe Hall as a mother from Pike River who had lost a son in a mining tragedy why did he not put on his prime ministerial hat and offer his condolences over the death of another son rather than contacting his friend Cameron Slater to gossip about her instead?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I made it quite clear at the time that I did not know the particular details of this story. I just simply said in passing that I recognised her.Dr Russel Norman: Will he now admit that he was the Prime Minister when he texted or phoned Cameron Slater to talk about a women who had lost all four of her sons; and will he say sorry to Mrs Hall?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No; I was leader of the National Party. What I said was that I recognised her and that does not deserve an apology just as the member himself was the leader of the Green Party when he went grovelling up to the Dotcom mansion.Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order. I want to hear it in silence.Dr Russel Norman: Standing Order 386 is very clear about the content of replies; they must not include statements of fact unless they are strictly necessary and so forth. The Prime Minister chose to introduce things into the reply that are completely unnecessary to the reply.Mr SPEAKER: I ask the member to equally look at Standing Order 380 with regard to supplementary questions: “Questions must be concise and not contain: statements of facts and names of persons unless they are strictly necessary to render the question intelligible and can be authenticated or arguments inferences imputations epithets ironical expressions or expressions of opinion …”. When I consider the content of the question I do not consider the content of the answer to be out of order.Dr Russel Norman: Why did the Prime Minister not behave like a Prime Minister on hearing that this was the mother who had lost four sons and actually offer condolences to that women instead of contacting the attack blogger Cameron Slater to offer him information about this woman—instead of behaving like a Prime Minister who should have offered condolences?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member should stop making things up.