1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterTUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2018The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.ORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: On behalf of the Prime Minister yes.Hon Simon Bridges: Why was Karel Sroubek granted residency?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The person in question was granted residency after the Minister of Immigration in a very difficult case personally made a judgment; didn't leave it like in the past to the officials; and ensured that there were caveats on its continuance.Hon Simon Bridges: What was difficult about it?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well what was difficult about it was facing up to his responsibility for a start which is new because the last Government overturned 108 deportation orders and the Minister at the time—after 2014—gave those decisions to the officials and ducked his personal responsibility.Hon Simon Bridges: How many kickboxing fraudster drug dealers were there in those 108 that the Prime Minister referred to?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Of the 108 there were the following types of people: serial sex offenders a woman who killed her husband a man who killed a grandfather in a road rage attack and several rapists. The former immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse according to this report handed over most decisions on deportations involving criminal behaviour to officials in 2014.Hon Simon Bridges: What verification of Sroubek's claim to stay in New Zealand was made by the Government before Iain Lees-Galloway granted residency?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Mr Iain Lees-Galloway should've been a lawyer because he put certain caveats on the verification process and his decision only kicks in if that verification is satisfied unlike the previous Government that overturned 108 deportation orders and refused to take ministerial responsibility.Hon Simon Bridges: Wasn't significant independent verification needed given that New Zealand's judicial bodies—the Parole Board the Court of Appeal—did not believe Sroubek and said he was untruthful?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I want to thank the member for being finally on to it. That's precisely the ground that the Minister of Immigration covered and there is a caveat also on that verification that until it is satisfied then his decision will not take effect.Hon Simon Bridges: Why is the Government ignoring the Czech Republic's request for extradition?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I have to tell the member that some matters internationally have to remain private in the interests of the safety of others. And anyone who's been involved in international affairs would know that responsibility and the Czech situation is precisely one of those.Hon Simon Bridges: Why on earth should Sroubek remain in New Zealand rather than going to the Czech Republic—a First World EU nation with the European Court of Justice at its head?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'd like to answer the member but because of the privacy provisions which were at the centre of the Minister's decision I cannot. Now let me say that there have been countless cases such as that like the 108 that National left to officials in the main and not one of them was explained.Hon Simon Bridges: Why is the Government giving residency to an international criminal over hard-working law-abiding people who want to make New Zealand their home?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The answer to that question of course is that the very people he seeks to use as his whiter than pale example were in this country seeking that very decision from him as a Minister of Cabinet and he did not make it. Now can I just say this. Look in 2012 this is what happened: someone convicted twice for sex offending including while on bail would not be deported even though he did not complete any rehabilitation programme or offence-related courses in prison. That's the kind of standard that his Government set.Hon Simon Bridges: Does the Prime Minister's comment to read between the lines" on Sroubek really mean that under her Government New Zealand's gone entirely soft on international criminals?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: That's an amazing though typical allegation. The reality is this is a Government that to ensure that our streets are safe and our country is safe is getting 1800 more front-line police and 400 more in back-up of the office—a record in this country. And as for the allegation of being soft on crime—if you've got no front-line police then that's what happened under the previous administration not ours."