Bennett PaulaHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): Well one might call this an extraordinary day or they might not because it's just another day that we've had no answers from the Prime Minister whatsoever on serious issues that this Opposition is putting to the Government of the day. So yes we want to hear from the Prime Minister what is going on in the Sroubek fiasco and what her involvement is and whether or not she is going to stand up to a victim—a victim—of that man and her Government is putting her in danger. So yes we do demand answers and yes we feel like we stand in this House day after day asking straight and direct questions and not getting those answers from the Government. We will stand here day after day and ask questions on behalf of New Zealanders on serious matters that the Prime Minister can duck and can dive and can avoid and can just use a lot of words but not actually say anything. She can virtue signal and make everyone try and feel better without actually answering the questions that the public deserves and they know what the questions are. Day after day they've been asked and they have not been answered. That's not extraordinary because we get that in this House pretty much day after day where we're not getting answers directly to our questions that we've spent a lot of time on. We understand that that's the modus operandi of this Government and how their most open and transparent Government" I have to say of the day chooses not to answer questions that are put to them straight but instead to talk around them. So that's not extraordinary in many respects but yes it is extraordinary. It's extraordinary today that we saw the Leader of the Opposition and our shadow leader of the House thrown out of the House and that is extraordinary. It's extraordinary in many respects and I think a shame for this House actually that we're seeing that kind of thing happen. It's a shame that actually they did call it out as they needed to. I find it extraordinary that we have had the shadow leader of the House thrown out for what I thought was a very benign comment but I suppose that's your judgment to make and the judgment Mr Speaker that you have made. Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. As someone who's previously been ejected from the House for reflecting on the Speaker's decision to eject another member I wonder whether in fact this has gone on long enough. It is out of order to reflect on a decision of the Speaker to ask someone to leave the Chamber. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Speaking to that point—SPEAKER: No I don't need any assistance thank you. The member can continue. I think it is an important decision and discussing around the principles of it I think is not a problem. Hon PAULA BENNETT: Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm purposely not repeating the things that they have said because I acknowledge that you have made your call and I respect you for that—in fact I respect your position in this House. We need a Speaker that is here and that is doing it and in that context I'm going to get back to the Government of the day and the fact that we are not getting the answers that we need. I can understand the pressure that is going over when you can see a Leader of the Opposition that's actually making a difference and that has an Opposition party that's currently at 46 percent in the polls—so that makes the Government very uneasy. We can understand that the Prime Minister's not feeling as strong at the end of the year as she may have been feeling at the beginning of the year and that that pressure is coming on the Government. I mean we don't see a plan for this country. Actually I was thinking that at best we see ad hoc policy made and at worst what we're seeing is actually horse-trading going on between three parties. So it's like "We'll give you this if you give us that." but it's not whether or not that is the best thing for New Zealand and fits in with an actual plan for how we get this great country of ours actually thriving and going better. So the Leader of the Opposition the Hon Simon Bridges will stand up in this House and he will challenge the Government daily and he has a right to do that. I can acknowledge that the Prime Minister has a right to talk around it and not answer anything and to think that that's pretty clever and that that's pretty smart and that that's the way that it wants it but I think that we're seeing the results of that. I think the public is standing up and saying "We want some straight answers from the very straight questions that we're getting from the Opposition." Actually it is quite serious because this Sroubek fiasco is incredibly serious. There are still questions that have not been answered by either the Prime Minister or the Minister of Immigration and now there are questions for the Minister of Police as well. We have a woman that is under protection who feels incredibly unsafe and we have officials that have gone there that should not even know her address and the Prime Minister and the Minister of Immigration should see that for the seriousness that it is and should be asking those kinds of questions. So when our leader today stood up and asked those questions of the Prime Minister after the fiasco that we've had from the acting Prime Minister in the House answering on her behalf for the last couple of question times—for that to have been dismissed then yeah that makes him a bit angry."