Mallard Trevor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMallard Trevor: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15757. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) to theMinister of Internal Affairs: Further to his answers to supplementary questions to Oral Question No 11 on Thursday 30 January relating to his responsibility for the security of information does he believe that all his actions as a Minister mean he is an appropriate person to hold the position of Minister of Internal Affairs?Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Internal Affairs): Yes.Hon Trevor Mallard: Did he as part of the process of his recent reappointment as a Minister give the Prime Minister an assurance that he did not leak the draft Kitteridge report or make it available to a Fairfax reporter?Hon PETER DUNNE: The discussions I had with the Prime Minister are between the Prime Minister and me but I reiterate the answers that I gave to the House on 30 January. I have had no ministerial responsibility for any issues relating to the Kitteridge report.Hon Trevor Mallard: Was the reason that he is not prepared to tell the House that he has given the Prime Minister an assurance that he did not make the draft Kitteridge report available to a Fairfax reporter because he in fact made that document available to that reporter?Mr SPEAKER: I call the Hon Peter Dunne in as far as there is current ministerial responsibility.Hon PETER DUNNE: I was appointed to this position on 28 January. In relation to the primary question I have honoured the responsibilities entrusted to me fully since that date. In relation to other matters I have no responsibility for them.Hon Trevor Mallard: Is he in a position to give the House now an assurance that he did not make the draft Kitteridge report available to a Fairfax reporter; if not why not?Mr SPEAKER: Again I will allow the Minister to answer the question but in as far as he has current ministerial responsibility as Minister of Internal Affairs.Hon PETER DUNNE: I refer the member to my previous answers on this very subject.Hon Trevor Mallard: Referring to his current responsibility for security of information can he give the House an assurance that he is a suitable person to oversee this for New Zealand by now stating that he has never made a confidential report available to a Fairfax reporter?Mr SPEAKER: Again I will invite the Minister to answer the question in line with his current ministerial responsibility.Hon PETER DUNNE: My current responsibilities began on 28 January and the question that is made is answered in respect of those answers and I refer the member to previous answers on earlier subjects.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Having regard to the security and secrecy of information particularly in his present job why does he not admit the time the date the room and the circumstances of his leaking of the Kitteridge report?Mr SPEAKER: Order! That question is not in order at all.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Why not? I put the issue of confidential information which is critical to the Inland Revenue Department up front—which is the job he had then and now—and I am asking a straightforward question. Why is it not in order?Mr SPEAKER: I have ruled it out of order because—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Yes I’m asking you why.Mr SPEAKER: If the member gives me a minute I will explain it to him. Although he prefaced his question by referring to the Minister’s current employment he then went back to an issue that occurred prior to Mr Dunne being appointed as Minister of Internal Affairs. On that basis I ruled the question out of order.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Can I just clarify for the benefit of the House in raising—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Mr Speaker you—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: What’s your problem now?Mr SPEAKER: If the member wants to stay in the House to raise a point of order I expect him to sit down when I rise to my feet. I will hear a fresh point of order from the member but I want to be absolutely clear to the member that if he is attempting to relitigate in any way a decision I have made in ruling that question out of order I will take that as leading this House to disorder. Does the member wish to raise a fresh point of order?Rt Hon Winston Peters: Yes. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. There would not be one self-respecting Western democracy where fitness for appointment was not the issue. In countless cases in the UK Australia and elsewhere—Canada the United States and here in this Parliament one of only nine that has had unbroken elections for 155 years—you are saying that suitability and fitness for appointment on a past record is not a present consideration?Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. He is very lucky that I am not asking him to leave the Chamber. The member is now attempting to relitigate a decision I have made.Hon Trevor Mallard: Would his current position be properly characterised as having absolution without confession in order to set up another dodgy deal on the part of the Prime Minister to give him the Ōhariu seat?Mr SPEAKER: Again I will invite the Minister to answer that question as far as it is in his current ministerial responsibility.Hon PETER DUNNE: That may be the characterisation the member would choose to apply; it is not actually the fact.