Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:656;Page:5879] 
2.  
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by his claim that as Prime Minister he is committed to consulting with and listening to people prior to making decisions that impact on their lives? 
Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Does the Prime Minister understand why people like Ngati Whatua spokesperson Ngarimu Blair has described his consultation as a masquerade and the  
New Zealand Herald 
 has accused the Prime Minister of ignoring due parliamentary process when the Government arrogantly goes ahead and makes announcements as to its decisions when the people’s submissions to that select committee have not yet been considered and deliberated upon? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: There is no hope for the Prime Minister. Would bodies like the Auckland Regional Council and the Kaipara District Council and the Rodney District Council today be expressing concerns about “major and secret changes” to the legislation and “worst possible scenarios” if the consultation process had been adequate and if there were trust in the Government’s good faith in this matter? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: The Government has gone through the select committee process on the matter. We are working through the decisions on boundaries which were part of that select committee process. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: How does the Prime Minister claim to be committed to consultation and to be listening to people on the Auckland City reform bill when firstly his announcements after the royal commission reported were made without any process of consultation; secondly the legislation introduced was rammed through under urgency without any select committee process; and thirdly now with this so-called showcase of consultation without referring to those submissions he has made decisions that even his Minister of Maori Affairs described today as a sham? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: The Leader of the Opposition gets consultation confused with agreement. Just because some people advocate a position in a select committee does not mean the Government has to agree with it. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: On another matter while calling on the Labour Party to support the Government’s decision to send SAS troops to Afghanistan why did he not on any occasion make any effort to consult with Labour or any Opposition party on the reasons why he made that decision if he expected our support? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: It was my opinion that the Opposition had already made up its mind. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: That is a bit rich! Why as Prime Minister did he not consult with any Opposition parties either before or after making the decision to cut out pre-funding of New Zealand superannuation thus ending a period of consensus between political parties on superannuation that gave elderly people certainty in making plans for their retirement? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Two things: firstly because we exercised the provisions that already existed in the law that the previous Labour Government passed; secondly unlike the Leader of the Opposition I do not currently live on Mars and presume that the country is not going through an economic recession in which some changes might be necessary. 
John Boscawen 
: Is the Prime Minister prepared to listen to the 87 percent of Kiwis who voted No in the referendum and support my member’s bill? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Firstly we are listening to the 87 percent of people and that is why we are in a position— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: To issue guidelines and set up a committee! 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: You can be on it; it would give you something to do because you have not got much else to do! 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Speaker is not going to be on the committee. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I am sure they will let you out of primary school early to do that. Anyway—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Speaker is on his feet. There will be silence. Could the honourable member be a little more courteous. I might advise the Prime Minister that the Speaker left primary school quite a while ago sadly with advancing years. He must not refer to the Speaker in answering the questions. I think we have heard enough of that answer. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We have not begun to hear the answer yet. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Firstly the Government is listening to the 87 percent of New Zealanders. The way that we are doing that is that we asked both Child Youth and Family and the police to look at the process that we are working through. In direct answer to the member’s question about whether National will be supporting the bill through to select committee I say that is a decision I will be announcing at about 4 o’clock this afternoon. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Will the Prime Minister now commit to working constructively with Opposition parties in order to ensure that a credible emissions trading scheme is developed to protect our trade opportunities to allow us to meet international obligations and to ensure that we can give the forestry industry certainty to start planting trees and dealing with the problems surrounding climate change? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Unless I am missing something the Government has been working constructively with the Opposition. It is true that the Leader of the Opposition has written a letter to me expressing come concerns about the direction in which the emissions trading scheme negotiations are going. Like all letters I get from the Leader of the Opposition as expected it was delivered to the media at the same time as it was delivered to me. It would be a little more useful if the Leader of the Opposition wanted to have a constructive relationship with me if he could learn to deal with me as a grown-up and not through the media. 
Hon Heather Roy 
: Does the Prime Minister agree with the following statement made by John Key in April 2007 which is backed by 87 percent of New Zealanders: “… if the reality is that no one is ever going to be prosecuted for lightly smacking their child then don’t make it illegal. Don’t make it a crime. It’s poor law-making to write a very strict law and then trust the police and the courts not to enforce it strongly”; if not what has changed? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Well very simply what has changed is that an amendment was put up. The amendment basically ensured I believe that the police had quite clear guidelines in the way the law would be administered and at this point we have to say that the evidence strongly supports that the law is being administered the way the amendment was designed. 
Hone Harawira 
: Tena koe Mr Speaker. Tena tatou katoa e te Whare. Does the Prime Minister stand by his speech from the throne when he promised to see Maori standing strong economically independent and fulfilling the complete promise of their potential and how does he reconcile Cabinet’s recent failure to address the significant under-representation of Maori within local government with that earlier promise? 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes I do stand by that statement. It has been my view that an advisory participation committee is the best way of representing mana whenua. I draw the member’s attention to a huge number of gains that have been made in the very short time that National has been working with the Maori Party. Those gains have included a review of the foreshore and seabed legislation an accelerated process of Treaty settlements and substantial work being undertaken around Whanau Ora. They have included the policy that I announced this afternoon which will see thousands and thousands of young Maori given the opportunity to participate in holiday programmes and the like. Although I can fully understand the frustration of the Maori Party when it comes to the Auckland seats what I do know is that we have achieved more in 9 months than Labour achieved in 9 long years.