Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:423;Page:18538] 
8.  
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: What impact if any does the understanding of the English language have on the way in which she administers her Government? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) 
 on behalf of the 
 Prime Minister 
: I believe that the Prime Minister has a reasonable understanding of the English language sufficient at least to meet the needs of administering the Government. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: If that is the case does she understand the English language test which despite its failure by her administration to be administered now has 300000 people in this country who cannot speak English and how on earth did that happen? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I am not sure whether that information or statistic includes those aged under 2 the great majority of whom do not speak any language but we have had a number of immigrants from countries whose native language is not English. But of course there are a number of people I know of not always that far from here who claim to be native English speakers who I would not regard as functionally literate. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why is it that we now have a $1.2 million language line interpretation service fitted into parliamentary offices if the Prime Minister and her colleagues had been doing their job in respect of the English language test which despite that test now sees 300000 people in this country who cannot speak English—how did that happen? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: As one of my colleagues has recently pointed out sadly many people are functionally illiterate in English even though they are born and bred New Zealanders. That is the result of some failure over a long period of time. We have people whose native language is not English and who may pass a modest English language test but still find it useful in dealing with complex matters to use a language line. For example the member recently claimed that the Government had changed the rules on superannuation to move away from consumer price indexation. In fact section 15(2) of the New Zealand Superannuation Act provides for consumer price indexation. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That last answer was totally irrelevant for two reasons. Firstly it did not address the question and secondly it was demonstrably wrong when it comes to superannuation policy. That is how they fell below 65 percent of the net average wage. His colleague Mr Barker admitted that twice in the House last year—once orally and once in writing. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member has made his point but it is not a point of order. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why is it that all these people coming into this country are now demanding all sorts of new language services even to the extent that we have this service online in Parliament when in fact they should follow the acronym of an old Chinese gentleman who said that the policy the Government should be following is “FIFO—Fit in or fly off.”? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Unlike the member the Government encourages and values diversity in New Zealand’s population. We know the member does not but I do not think that is a view shared by the great majority of New Zealanders.