Question Time 26.06.2024

I gave my first 10/10 today. Gary told me that it's Chloe's 30th birthday, so happy birthday!🥳 It never occurred to me to look that info up... I have strange priorities. 1. Marama to The Prime Omelette MD 9, PO 4 This was a good day for the left. Hana was the only TPM person today. Sentencing Act ... 'interfering with the justice system' - Gary. RMA Reform? Another non-answer. Apparently the Government is avoiding cleaning up sites before returning them in Treaty Settlements. 'We are going to build things in this country' - Omelette. 2. Hamilton to Willis RH 5, NW 4 Operating allowance = $3.2 billion, which is the lowest since 2018. 'Allowances are a net concept' - Nicola. 'Let them eat cake' - Chloe. 'Fucking weird: feeling proud for making things worse' - Gary on Nicola. I think that he's becoming increasingly bitter, and I saw some intense frustration from Ricardo during the session today. Gary's holiday is coming up soon, and it looks like he'll miss the July sessions. 3. Chippy to the Prime Omelette CH 6, PO 4 Extreme weather events on the East Coast ... Mark Mitchell is on the ground. I might have misheard, but I think that the Government pledged $100,000 or some other pathetically low figure. 4. Parmar to McKee PP 5, NM 4 The new Three Strikes Law has begun its first reading. 'Stricter sentences for repeat offenders' - McKee. Spoken like a gun lobbyist! No parole for second or third strikes. 'I don't hear justice; I hear retribution ... this is what the Old Testament looks like in the 21st Century' - Gary. Does ACT support the death penalty? 5. Foster to Jonesy AF 6, SJ 4 Jonesy made a reference to psychedelics! Otherwise, he was a loud trot. NZ First only ever seems to have patsy questions, which speaks volumes about how little faith National has in those MPs. 'The catastrophic effects ... of climate activists' - Jonesy. 6. Woods to Willis MW 7, NW 4 Nice outfit, Megan! I don't have any orange pieces in my wardrobe, but it looked good on you. Tuned out a lot today... the Nats are boring me. 'She's got such a weak defence ... all she has is a string of tricks to avoid responsibility' - Gary on Nicola. Willie Jackson was cringing during one of the supplementaries. 7. Bidois to Goldsmith DB 4, PG 4 'Victims are the priority' - Goldsmith, with Uffindell sitting behind him. Capping sentence discounts at 40%. Gary said that this removes the incentive for people to plead guilty, which is likely to cost a buttload of money. 'Precursor to announcing a megaprison' - Gary. 8. Marama to the Omelette (round 2) MD 6, PO 4 No-cause evictions, cutting funding from homelessness mitigation programs. 9. Utikere to Goldsmith TU 10, PG 4 Congratulations to Tangi for getting the first 10/10! I thought this was a really good example of how to use supplementaries: each one dug the grave deeper and deeper, and Paul Goldsmith seemed out of his depth. Which party repudiated the ferry contract, Hyundai or KiwiRail? Non-answer. What is the exposure of KiwiRail? Another non-answer. Then another out-of-order supplementary from Winston. Exit costs: Goldsmith admitted that it might cost $200 million to exit the contract, and Utikere said that it might prevent us from buying or building ships for decades due to the reputational damage. 10. Nimon to Upston KM 4, LU 5 190,000 Jobseekers, and only 53,000 have regular case managers. 'We're making the welfare system more productive' - Upston. This wasn't quite so openly anti-beneficiary as previous questions that Upston has answered, focusing on facts and figures. This was the question where Ricardo looked particularly angry. 11. Belich to Van Velden CB 7, BV 5 Modern slavery ... ie exploiting RSE workers 'dealing in slaves is a criminal offence ... the Government's current practices meet those obligations [under the NZ/EU and NZ/UK FTA's]' - Van Velden. Apparently, it became clear in scrutiny week that MBIE isn't actively working on this issue, and that was the theme of many of the questions. 12. Costley to Penk TC 4, CP 5 Granny flats ... 'less red tape and more knitting wools' - Penk. 'We're only a few years away from the million-dollar granny flat' - Gary.