Question Time 19.12.2023 - liveblog

Sitting at home waiting for my dole money to arrive... AMPP has 109 points in Fantasy Parliament from the first two rounds. Signed the Greens petition; can't wait for that billboard to torment the Nats! 🤣 - Question about the affirmations of allegiance: do all the MPs really feel like they're representing King Charles? I mean, it's not like I've ever taken those vows, so to me it all seems really silly. - The grammar in that Savage extract was exactly from the book. I could have added commas, but that's not really the point of the exercise. I got the idea for all those book extracts from reading Cracked as a student, and discovering that Hunter S. Thompson typed up extracts from books when he was learning to write. People keep saying that language evolves, but they often neglect to mention that grammar evolves too. - 1. MacLeod to Willis

Cumulative inflation of 24.6% since 2017. 'The highest rate of inflation in more than 30 years' - Willis. Food prices have increased by nearly 30% - on top of inflation - since 2017. Yes, this is definitely a party of home owners and landlords... 'Beating inflation is this government's top priority' - Willis. 'Next year, we will be delivering tax relief for hard-working Kiwis' - Willis. 'The newly elected government is not of the view that ... [publishing] glossy documents changes peoples lives for the better' - Willis on cancelling a report into the economy. DML 6/10, NW 6/10, Grant Robertson 7/10, CS 6/10 -

2. Hipkins to Luxon 'What we don't support is bonuses on top of base renumeration' - Luxon regarding Māori language bonuses. 'The Prime Minister is not responsible for statements made by Mr. Luxon' - Chris Bishop. - That's actually the rule in Parliament... it's a strange place. 🐝 Clean car discount dramas: 'The car is owned by my wife; those are her affairs' - Luxon. Brownlee ruled that MPs shouldn't drag people's families into the debate. 'All government policy is the responsibility of the Prime Minister' - Brownlee. Planes: 'We've asked the defence force to give us a package' of air travel options - Luxon. CH 7/10, CL 7/10, CB 5/10, Winston P 4/10. - 3. Cameron to Seymour. 'It is New Zealand's long-term disease of low productivity' that is causing the low standard of living in NZ - Seymour. 'It's very difficult for people to identify those who put the red tape and costs on them' - Seymour. 'Why is a minister for Regulation needed?' - Cameron. 180-200 regulatory management systems, 10-14,000 public servants engaged in public regulatory activity. - Seymour. Duncan Webb - long supplementary... 'It takes longer to get permission for a home than it does to build it' - Seymour. Check Hansard: there's a long list of anecdotes that he's using to justify his new role... MC 6/10, DS 6/10, DW 5/10 - 4. Robertson to Willis Will the mini-budget tomorrow give specific information on how the tax cuts will be self-funding? - Robertson. Nicola's jacket is very stylish. That's not likely to up her score, but it is cool when MPs demonstrate some fashion sense. I think that her tone is improving, though. 'Is the mini-mini-mini budget now a nano-budget?' - Robertson.

GR 6/10, NW 6/10. - 5. Kirkpatrick to Bishop. The government has commissioned an independent review into Kāinga Ora. Kāinga Ora's level of debt has grown from around 2 billion to 12 billion. $580 million operating deficit in 2022/2023. More Māori language baiting and reporter blaming from Winston Peters... a two-fer. 'Will he commit to ensuring no net loss of state housing this term?' - Tamatha. Brownlee got confused, and thought she was Hana from TPM. DK 6/10, CB 7/10, Winston P 4/10, Tamatha P 5/10. - 6. McAnulty to Brown 'The government is committed to repealing the previous government's reforms' - Brown. 'balance sheet separation will not be recognised if these reforms are repealed' - McAnulty, quoting some report. 'Our reforms will ensure that local government has the tools that they need to deliver long-term financing for water infrastruture in New Zealand' - Brown. McAnulty is attempting to get Brown to guarantee that National's reforms will produce savings for ratepayers, knowing that it won't. Classic gotcha question. KMA 6/10, SB 6/10. - 7. Costley to Brown 'Let's Get Wellington Moving had failed to deliver the infrasctructure that Wellingtonians needed' - Brown. 'This government is focused on delivery, unlike the former -- focused on consultancy' - Brown. 'This government is committed to delivering roads of national significance for Wellington' - Brown. TC, 6/10, SB 7/10. - 8. Russell to Simmonds Te Pūkenga... my eyes are glazing over. 'I will cut the very expensive, bloated head office of Te Pūkenga' - Simmonds. DR 5/10, PS 6/10. - 9. Shaw to Brown What data on emissions, if any, did he provide to Cabinet regarding repealing the Clean Car Discount? - Shaw I think he's got Simeon's number, who sounds somewhat shifty. I doubt there's anyone in Parliament who is as fluent in climate change gobbledygook as James Shaw. JS 8/10, SB 4/10, DS 5/10. - 10. Weenink to Stanford. Hey, it's my bonus MP! 👋 'The distraction of cellphones will be removed from our classrooms' - Stanford. To be fair, that is evidence-based... 'ensure that our curriculum is based on the science of learning' - Stanford. Gary pointed out a week or two ago that all these kids in high school now were probably in primary school when the previous National government introduced national standards. 'The perpetual decline of student achievement will stop' - Stanford. VW 5/10, ES 6/10 - 11. Brooking to Simmonds Some drama around this question; Labour felt that National didn't answer the primary question, which took a few attempts to answer.

I've had a few swigs of wine, taking advantage of blogging from home. Decentralisation around environmental regulations... RB 6/10, PS 4/10, Duncan Webb 7/10. - 12. Waititi to Luxon 'It's just commonsense: we want English, Te Reo and sign language to be official languages' - Luxon. 'Is this policy just white fragility?' - Rawiri. 'We're not attacking Te Reo' - Luxon. 'How can something be defacto legal?' - Peters. Winston is seeming more and more like Denny Crane! 🤣 'The Prime Minister's quite good at answering questions, I think' - Brownlee. RW 7/10, CL 6/10, Winston P 5/10. - AMPP scored 82 points, bringing my total to 191 after 3 rounds.