Question Time 13 November 2024

This opened with a bunch of speeches. The last surviving member of the Māori Battalion died recently, having made it to the ripe old age of 99. Chris Penk, a former seaman, gave a very moving speech. Cushla sang a few bits, and made a strong statement of Māoritanga. I thought Kahurangi was a bit average, but Debbie seemed very well-prepared. Gary said that Mark Cameron from Act was 'dripping with insincerity.' Then Judith Collins made a ministerial statement about the NZDF civilian worker's strike, prompting Gary and I to ponder the similarities between this strike and 1951. David Parker asked some good questions to little avail. NB: I don't think I've seen anyone nursing a child in Question Time since 2023. Says a lot about what the coalition thinks of children... -

1. Chippy to the Prime Omelette C 6, PO 3 Stalking is now illegal: up to 5 years in jail. Treaty issues ... 'unless opposition parties support the Bill, it won't be enacted' - Omelette. 'We live in an MMP world' - The Omelette's paean to compromise. 2. Lu to Willis NL 5, NW 5 Building consents, export prices and business confidence are all up. That sounds good, but business confidence is always high under National and low under Labour. 'So we're supposed to feel good about paying more for milk?' - Gary. Very technical. This is the type of question that people like Bernard probably understand, but is way beyond me. 3. Parmar to the Pink Skull PP 5, SP 3 'Here come the anecdotes ... who was that, Bob Jones?' - Gary, as the Pink Skull proceeded to read out what seemed to be Facebook comments by various randoms. Treaty Principles Bill? 'There's nothing to worry about' - Pink Skull. Debbie got incensed when one of the anecdotes attacked TPM. 4. Sepuloni to Upston CS 7, LU 4

Good to see Carmel. It was 3:05pm by this point, and Brownlee made a comment about the slowness. Why has weekly reporting of income support and hardship stalled? 'Returning to the pre-Covid reporting' - Upston. Carmel implied that it's because the numbers are rising ... 'unemployment continues to climb to record highs.' 5. Mariameno to Erica MK 6, ES 3 Colonisation and state care ... the question was very detailed, and the supplementaries were attacked by the government as not being in line with the primary question. Brownlee ruled in favour of TPM, which is something of a rarity. This was yet another question filled with tedium and points of order. 6. Kahurangi to Chhour KC1 5, KC2 4 Section 7AA in light of yesterday's apology. Is there any evidence for repealing it? Well, she didn't really answer, so I'm guessing that there isn't. In that vein, I'd love the Greens to come up with an alternative to UBI now that there are new studies questioning that policy. 'I'm sick of reports that say the same things over and over again ... we know their names ... OT has to pick up the pieces' - Chhour 7. Ginny to Goldie GA 5, PG 3 This was called early by Brownlee after pandemonium erupted in the House.

8. Meager to Goldie JM 5, PG 5

Stalking laws (again). They're looking to establish a link between stalking and intimate partner violence. Gary was keen to mention that cops often abuse their power to stalk former partners, which I'd never heard about until today. (partners = former boyfriend/girlfriend/hirfriend). 'The new offence will capture a pattern of behaviour' - Goldie. 9. Tam to Chhour TP 7, KC 4 Boot camps. 75 lessons were identified and collated from previous boot camps. 'Moral panic around youth delinquency' - Tam. A 90% pass rate for the first stage of the pilot. 'I know the damage that can be done' - Chhour. 10. Ayesha to Reti AV 5, SR 5 Voluntary redundancies at Te Whatu Ora. 863 expressions of interest. 'The front line is safe' - Reti, who said that the redundancies were an operational matter for Health NZ, and hence didn't answer. 11. Garcia to Potaka PG 5, TP 5

Emergency housing (again). 726 households were moved from emergency housing to social housing, and a new scheme is being tested in Wellington and Hamilton that will allow 50-100 singles and couples without children to access social housing over 2 years. I'm not sure how many people in Hamilton and Wellington are in emergency housing, but it's probably a lot more than 100. 12. Willow-Jean to Erica WJP 7, ES 4 Māori education. 'Minister Stanford is misleading the public' - an AAP quote that Willow-Jean read out as part of a question. 'They've caught her out, and she's got no way out' - Gary. 12% of Māori children are at curriculum level for maths, and Erica appeared to be saying that maths is more important than Te Reo, having cut $30 million from Te Ahu o Te Reo Māori (which was presumably used to fund Make It Count).