Question Time 12 August 2025

Writing from home. - Debate on Palestinian statehood mooted by Peeni. After Question Time. Teanau wishes to debate the FBI office. Only one can be an urgent debate, unfortunately. -

1. Brewer to Bish CB 5, CB 4 On behalf of Nicola. Reading it off the sheet. Covid cost NZ $60 billion. Twice the cost of the Canterbury earthquakes. 'non-urgent covid spending ... was a key driver of structural deficits' - Bish. Massive increase in debt between 2019 and 2023. Attacking the opposition via a patsy question. 'stop playing the blame game' - Ben or Shanan. - 2. Chippy to Omelette CH 5, PO 4 The Speaker criticised Chippy for continuing with 'does the prime minister stand by' questions. Lack of imagination from the opposition. 'People who have lost their jobs is an incredibly sad thing' 'pain and suffering for low and middle-income New Zealanders' - Luxon. 'post-Covid hangover .. driving up inflation and interest rates' - Luxon. 18,000 construction workers out of work since the change of government. 6 out of 10 state house builders have 'exited the market' - Chippy. $250 a fortnight? They haven't found one as of yet. - 3. Puhihuia to Prime Omelette CS 6, PO 5 Who is opposing Palestinian statehood. 'A broad range of views' - Omelette. What is the harm of recognising Palestine? 'when, not if .. Hamas must release hostages' Israeli hostages have been offered back multiple times - Puhihuia 'I would be careful throwing terms like genocide around' - Omelette. 'What does he know that holocaust and genocide scholars don't?' - Chloe Point of order, Pink Skull ... 'a series of assertions' 'There's a humanitarian catastrophe happening in the Middle East' - Omelette Fairly good answers, despite appearing constrained by the US. David's criticising Chloe's keffiyeh laid out on her chair, so she's wearing it. - 4. Bates to Stanford CB 5, ES 5 NCEA. Lots of new ideas. Back to letter grades rather than Excellence etc. 'No government has been bold enough to take decisive action' - Erica. 'There are clear issues with the design and implementation of NCEA ... difficult for parents and employers to understand' - Erica 60% of teachers don't believe that NCEA is reliable. 'We are ambitious for your children ... the best parts of NCEA will stay' - Erica. 'Woohoo! Let's go!' - Parent feedback. Anecdote, anecdote, anecdote... - 5. Ginny to Bishop GA 7, CB 5 On behalf of Nicola (again). Are job losses personal? 'victims of an economy that was mismanaged' - Bishop 'As if their daily struggle doesn't matter' - Ginny Budget forecasts a 240,000 increase in jobs in the next four years. 'It's not my job to find the solutions' - Bish, quoting Edmonds. Winston butted in. Totally weird. What would the unemployment rate be if people hadn't moved to Aussie? 'Your mismanagement of the economy wasn't funny' - Bish 'Grant Roberton's profligate reign of fiscal terror' - Bish. That's got to be one of the better bon mots of the year. - 6. Weenink to Penk VW 5, CP 6 93% of construction business leaders are confident in the industry. 52% are very confident. 'This government is backing the building industry' - Penk. Soft corruption - increased investment. Altering overseas investment act. Investment boost that he says will help the industry. 34,000 new dwellings have been consented. $6 billion of infrastructure projects to launch before Christmas. 7. Peeni to Slimeon PH 7, SR 3 Iwi partnership boards in health. 'Making sure the voices of Māori communities can be clearly heard' - Slimeon. Yeah, right. Iwi boards aren't allowed to be commissioning agencies. 'Better services for all New Zealanders' - Slimeon. As I say, Slimeon isn't medically literate, but my brother reckons that they think he's some type of whiz kid organiser. 8. Marcroft to Winston JM 5, WP 5

2025 Rail Safety Week. 'tracks are for trains' ... 6 deaths on the tracks this year. Takes about a kilometre for the trains to stop. KiwiRail will make the Marsden Point plans available shortly. The land's been bought and fast-tracked. 'Creating wealth in New Zealand' - Winston City Rail Link. He took a test ride recently. Ferries: 'everything is tracking to time ... 2 new ferries' - Winston 9. Nakhle to Penk RM 4, CP 4 Patsy question no. 2. 'We've already heard this one' - Chippy. Granny flats to help rich old people. More buildings without consents. 'The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive' - Penk 10. Arena to Bish AW, CB On behalf the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Reducing grocery prices? 'An extensive work programme underway' - Bish. 'Stripping red tape out of our growers and our farmers' 135 days since the opposition made a request for information. 'The government wants to see greater competition in the supermarket sector' - Bish 11. Debbie to Prime Omelette DN 5, PO 4 Palestine? 'It's a government that wants to weigh up its position' - Omelette 'New Zealand supports a two-state solution; goes right back to 1947' Killing the Al Jazeera journalists? 'Prime Minister doesn't have responsibility' - Brownlee Point of order, Pink Skull. 'This is a very sensitive subject' - Brownlee The entire question's been dragged down. $37 million spent on humanitarian assistance. 'It's very difficult to get aid into Gaza thanks to the actions of Israel' 12. Marama to Prime Omelette MD 5, PO 4 Worker-led collectives are describing it as the 'most anti-work government in decades.' 'We are the ones that lowered inflation' - Omelette 'We have had wages growing faster than inflation' - Omelette. Collective bargaining? 'We support lots of options' Why did he choose to cut thousands of jobs? 'not in order' - Brownlee 'We care about low and middle income people on [sic] this government' - Luxon 'Chloe Swarbrick as a minister of finance is not the way forward.'