Prebble Richard: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Prebble Richard: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:607;Page:4888] 
2.  
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (Leader—ACT NZ) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Why did the Prime Minister last week instruct the New Zealand Ambassador to the United States of America Mr John Wood to apologise and who are the individuals if any who have accepted the prime ministerial apology? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Because offence had been taken and I elected to deal with the matter. No particular individual has been asked to accept anything. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Is the Prime Minister’s refusal to advise the House whom she has apologised to because no one has accepted her apology or is it because she is embarrassed that by her armchair generalship she has made an international fool of herself? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No one was asked to accept anything. An apology was conveyed. 
Hon Bill English 
: In the light of the Prime Minister’s belief that she is an expert on foreign affairs when did it become bleedingly obvious to her that the comments she made—indicating she wished that Al Gore had won the election—would be offensive to the Bush administration? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Leaving aside the obvious inaccuracies in that statement I say that by the end of the week it was clear to me I had to deal with the matter. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Would the Prime Minister advise the House and the country whether her apology is because “offence had been taken”—her words—or because she was just plain wrong? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: My apology was because offence had been taken. 
Keith Locke 
: If there was a diplomacy problem was it not because George Bush rejected a diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis; and will the Prime Minister be asking George Bush for an apology for invading Iraq violating international law and the UN charter and causing such death and destruction? [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Every member has a right to ask a question in this Parliament and I remind members of that. I will not have interjections during the asking of a question. 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No I will not be asking for such an apology. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I ask the Prime Minister again given her answer to me does she therefore stick by her words that the war was not going according to plan and that this war would not have happened if Al Gore had been the President—despite the fact that Mr Gore supports the American invasion of Iraq? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I do not intend to elaborate any further on the comments. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is the last comment that member will make. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I admit I made a comment and I apologise for that. But so did the Prime Minister. Will you talk to her too? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I did not hear the Prime Minister make any comment at all. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Does the Prime Minister now accept that her comments suggesting that the war in Iraq might not have happened under an Al Gore presidency were not only extremely ill-informed but also totally inappropriate as Al Gore is a known hawk on the need to enforce a regime change in Iraq with or without further UN resolutions? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I accept that offence was taken—which is why I offered the apology. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Let us get this clear from the Prime Minister: is it her position that she believes she was right on both counts—which offended the United States and people in the United States administration—and that she has apologised only because someone has taken offence? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Comments have been grossly distorted. I do not intend to elaborate on them. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: When the Prime Minister last week announced that it was “bleedingly obvious” that the war was not going to plan where did she get her information from; was it from our traditional allies the United States Britain and Australia or did she get her information from the Iraqi Minister of Information who still believes that the Americans are not in Baghdad? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I do not think anyone takes the latter gentleman seriously. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I seek leave to table various quotations from website references together with excerpts from David Halberstam’s new book  
War in a Time of Peace 
 which clearly outline that Al Gore’s position is exactly the same as President Bush’s position. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table those documents. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister is obviously the leader of this country and is speaking in that capacity on this country’s defence and foreign policy. Mr Prebble asked her a very very serious question. He asked her–and we would all like to know this—where she got her information from. She completely denied Parliament an answer. She treated it frivolously and referred to the Minister of Information for Iraq not being taken seriously. But Mr Prebble did not ask her that; he gave that as an alternative. She clearly showed that she did not get the information from the Iraqi Minister of Information. Therefore the outstanding question still lies: where did she get it from? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Prime Minister addressed the question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to ask you this question: is there one New Zealander who believes what you have just said on that matter—that she answered the question? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member will be seated. He will now stand and withdraw and apologise for questioning my ruling. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am not questioning your ruling; I am asking for some clarification. Do you believe there would be one New Zealander who believes that the Prime Minister answered Mr Prebble’s question? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It does not matter what I believe or what any other New Zealander believes. I have to adjudge whether she addressed the question. She did. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. When I look at the questions today I see there are a number on this subject. Since the Prime Minister has now assured the House that her remarks have been misinterpreted—I think that is the phrase she gave—or distorted surely it would be appropriate for the Prime Minister to make a statement to the House of what she really did say last week because we would like to know what the apology was actually for. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is a matter for the Prime Minister not for the Speaker.