Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 28 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8319. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
1. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister for State Owned Enterprises 
: Does he take any responsibility as a shareholding Minister for Solid Energy’s precarious financial position? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
on behalf of the Minister for State Owned Enterprises: Yes the Minister is responsible for exercising the powers of the shareholding Minister under the State-Owned Enterprises Act. The State-Owned Enterprises Act also lays out that the responsibility for the operational and financial performance of all State-owned enterprises including Solid Energy lies primarily with the boards of those companies although shareholders and the Government are ultimately held accountable by the House and the public. The Minister is not responsible for the significant commercial risks faced by Government-owned businesses and in the case of Solid Energy a 40 percent drop in the coal price and a substantial drop in orders for its export coal. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: At the no-surprises meeting that he along with Ministers English and Joyce had with the then chair of Solid Energy John Palmer was he advised that the contract of the then chief executive of Solid Energy was to be signed off by Mr Palmer prior to his official departure date from office? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Minister met with the chair of Solid Energy on a number of occasions and in the absence of a date I do not know which meeting that member is referring to. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: At the no-surprises meeting on 21 August 2012 did he make any inquiries as to the then chief executive of Solid Energy’s terms of employment; if he did not how does he expect the New Zealand public to believe that he was not yet again asleep at the wheel as the shareholding Minister? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I can only refer to the answers that the Minister gave yesterday when he told the House that he was advised that Dr Elder’s contract was last updated for employment law changes on 31 August 2012 and that that would normally be considered an operational matter not a matter for Ministers and that he was advised there were no changes made to pay or entitlements. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That answer refers to what the Minister was advised. I know it is a subtle difference. My question was what inquiries the Minister made at that specific meeting. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: And I heard the question and considering that the Minister is answering on behalf of another Minister I think the question was very adequately addressed. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I will invite you to— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! [ 
Interruption 
] Order! Would the member please resume his seat. What the member is now attempting to do is litigate the quality of the answer by using the point of order system and that is not acceptable. That will lead to disorder. If the member has further supplementary questions I invite him to ask them; otherwise we will move to the next question. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No. If it is a fresh point of order I will happily hear it but if it is any attempt to relitigate a ruling I have made as to the satisfactory nature of that answer then I will not allow further supplementary questions from the member. So the choice is his. Does he have a further point of order or a supplementary question? Supplementary question the Hon Clayton Cosgrove—[ 
Interruption 
] Order! I certainly want to hear the question. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Did any additional benefits accrue to Dr Elder as a consequence of his contract being signed off on 31 August 2012? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I think for the fourth time I can state this in the House: I am advised on behalf of the Minister that no changes were made to pay or entitlements. In fact this has been confirmed by the previous chair and the current chair. I think that is the fourth time the Government has answered that question. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: When he became Minister did he read each and every quarterly report of Solid Energy since 2009 which show the steady decline in the financial position of the company; if he did read each and every quarterly report of Solid Energy since 2009 why did he not act earlier? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I imagine he did read the quarterly reports. Where the member’s assertion is incorrect is that it does not show from 2009 a steady decline in the operations of Solid Energy. I might also point out that when one decision was made to close the Spring Creek Mine that member and his party bitterly accused the Government of abandoning workers and their jobs but that was one of the early decisions to try to get this company back under control. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Given that the Government knew when it received the scoping study on 4 November 2011 that Solid Energy was in a precarious financial position why has he and other Ministers continued to claim ever since that asset sales would raise $5 billion to $7 billion when he and other Ministers knew full well that Solid Energy was not in any state to sell? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The $5 billion to $7 billion was an estimate made I think perhaps 3 years ago now—certainly 2 years ago—and as I will point out to the member $5 billion to $7 billion is a range of $2 billion. The reason there was a range was that it allowed for the fact that these are commercial businesses that face market risks. In the case of Solid Energy some of those risks have eventuated and unfortunately the taxpayer has to bear the costs of those risks because we own the company. Perhaps if it had been sold 3 years ago and we had collected a couple of billion for it we would all be a lot better off.