Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3619. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
3. 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he still stand by his statement “National will deliver a strong and stable Government”? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I stand by my full statement that “National will deliver a strong and stable Government—and build a stronger economy with less debt and more jobs.” 
David Shearer 
: Does he believe the claim by the co-leader of his support party that his recent comments were “insulting” and “dissing” the Waitangi Tribunal and is this helping him to deliver on his promise of a strong and stable Government? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No I do not agree that those comments were of that nature but what I do agree with is that the Maori Party in Government with National has provided a great addition to the Government. I think it has been strong. I think it has delivered great measures. Actually it is no wonder the Maori members of the Labour caucus are so embarrassed because they have achieved nothing compared with what the Maori Party has in Government. 
David Shearer 
: In light of that answer does he believe his description of his meeting with the Maori Party tonight as a “regular one” matches that of the Maori Party which says that walking away from its relationship with the Government is “something we’ll have to consider after the meeting” and is it possible that the Government’s split has these sorts of meetings regularly when dealing with the support parties? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: We do have regular meetings with our partners but at least the advantage for National is that we have got people who actually want to work with us as opposed to the Labour Party. 
David Shearer 
: If John Banks is charged with electoral fraud will he stand him down as Minister? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The member is asking a hypothetical question. Let us be honest: the only person who is going to end up in court is Trevor Mallard. 
David Shearer 
: Hypothetically then if one of his Ministers was charged with fraud would he stand them down as Minister because they violate his ethical standards which he stood up for? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The member is asking hypothetical questions and I do not answer hypothetical questions. 
David Shearer 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think that was a reasonable question. I did actually flag that that was a hypothetical question and I was genuinely interested—[ 
Interruption 
]  
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! 
David Shearer 
: —in whether the Prime Minister would apply that standard to his own ethical standards. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is quite a tricky one this one because members will know that we cannot actually insist that Ministers answer hypothetical questions. I accept that on this occasion the member was testing a principle but I cannot really force a Prime Minister or Minister to answer a hypothetical question because it is a matter that may or may not occur. It is a difficult one. The member is entitled to ask the question and the public can judge the answer that is given but I cannot insist on a specific answer to a hypothetical question. 
David Shearer 
: Does he believe he is delivering strong and stable government when one of his support partners is threatening to walk away and another could be charged by the police? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Again the member is making assumptions I do not think he should make. But let me say this. We have been the Government now for the better part of nearly 4 years. In that time I think New Zealanders are taking great confidence that we have strong and stable government that we have a strong agenda for New Zealand and that we are delivering economic growth as we have seen. With the greatest of respect if anyone thinks that Labour and the Greens will be a strong and stable Government they had better think again.