Question Time 20.08.2024

Half an hour spent congratulating the Olympians, which was obviously warranted, but took bloody ages!

1. Hlöe to Omelette    AP 7, PO 3

For starters, Clöe would be more accurate to the typo that I actually made re: Karen Chhour!

To watch: Te Ao with Moana, Karen Chhour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRj6SxqXoIw&ab_channel=TeAowithMoana

‘Road safety by going after drunk and drug drivers’ – Omelette

Te Tiriti question: did Māori cede sovereignty?

‘Our position is the Crown is sovereign … Māori ceded sovereignty to the Crown’ – Omelette

2. Chippy to Omelette  C 6 PO, 5

‘Making people unemployed so nobody has anything to spend … you’ve sabotaged everything, you over-inflated egg’ – Gary, instantly back into the swing of things.

‘Bad economic management and vandalism’ – The Omelette, blaming the previous government.

‘This is a government that wants to get things built’ – Omelette, while Chippy noted that a new survey said New Zealand’s construction sector is depressed, and in fact is the most depressed in the world. Something to fact-check?

‘Everyone at the yacht club thinks it’s great’ – Gary on the Omelette’s justifications.

Out-of-order supplementaries from the other coalition leaders...

3. Stuart Smith to Willis  SS 5, NW 5

Patsy question. More inflation.

‘They’re so one-eyed about reducing inflation that they can’t see the damage they’re doing … 30,000 more on benefits and over 100,000 leaving the country’ – Gary

Government spending as a portion of GDP is projected to reduce over the next few years.

4. Edmonds to Willis  BE 6, NW 4

Tax cuts vs. downsizing … ‘overall funding for OT in the budget increased’ – Willis

‘I love the stand-up; when’s she going to do something serious?’ – Gary

More Wellington-bashing for Nicola. Gary’s telling her she should contest the Tāmaki seat in the next election, rather than lose in yet another Wellington electorate.

5. Nimon to Willis  KN 5, NW 6

Patsy question. ‘New Zealand’s banking sector is uncompetitive … lacks innovation … competition resembles a cozy pillow fight’ – Nicola

14 new Commerce Commission recommendations.

‘Arselicking the banks … zero confidence in her.’  - Gary

‘Chuff themselves’ – Nicola. Interesting turn of phrase. She largely made sense during this question, which was a novelty.

6. Ricardo to Upston  RM 7, LU 4

Benefit sanctions.

‘Sanctions are part of the necessary tools needed in order to shift people into work’ – Upston

'Conflating correlation with causation’ – Ricardo. Then Upston proceeded to quote Newstalk ZB as if it was real evidence rather than anecdotal evidence.

‘That’s not evidence. That’s your beliefs’ – Gary

7. Carmel to Upston  CS 7, LU 4

‘The disability support system is much worse than we had initially thought … mainstream first … before specialist support services’ – Upston

‘Stop under-resourcing’ – Gary

‘No disabled people on the independent review panel’ – Carmel

There was a quadriplegic or tetraplegic* in the Speaker’s Gallery today, so I wonder how he felt about this question.

*I think that's the right term: someone with four underdeveloped limbs.

8. Debbie to the Omelette  DN 9, PO 4

‘Does our constitution allow 3 PM’s at once?’ – Debbie, who asked tough questions to perfunctory answers.

Then Seymour and Peters had some smarmy supplementaries…

‘Go outside the House to touch each other’s dicks’ – Gary.

9. WJP to Chhour  WJP 6, KC 3

34 OT services had their funding increased. Total amount $18.7 million.

‘Millions, not billions’ - Gary

'No cuts have been made from funding ... we are going to realign the money where it will make the greatest impact' - Chhour. Supplementary from Debbie, which noted that there's a record number of new tamariki Māori in the system.

10. Mooney to Upston JM 5, LU 5

Patsy question. Beneficiary-bashing. 'Carrot and stick ... she's going to get another WINZ worker killed' - Gary.

'Our government is making our welfare system more proactive' - Upston

11. Andersen to McKee GA 6, NM 4

McKee turned what was essentially a safety and justice question into a firearms rights questions as she discussed her refusal to progress the firearms register.

'So glad she's going to be unemployed in two years ... they're moving so fast because they know they're only going to have three years' - Gary.

12. Campbell to Collins HC 5, JC 6 GE ban has been officially reversed. 'Gene tech is already being used safely in 29 countries' - Judith.

'Potentially no off-season ... risk management will be at the forefront of the new regime' - Judith.