Reviewing from home. I'll try to update between questions. Wix is buggy atm... 1. Unkovich to Peters TU 4, WP 4 NZ FIrst patsy question. Gumboot Friday. 15,000 people per year. Winston is reading his statement... boring. 2. Sepuloni to Peters CS 5, WP 4 One word answers... oh, this time it was three words! Todd Stephenson and Pharmac: possible conflict of interest. Then Winston launched into a tirade... 3. Ricardo to Costello RMM 6, CC 5 Refugees question. Medical certificates. Only 2 applications were declined last year, and those were subsequently granted. 'I refute the claim that this creates barriers' - Costello. Ricardo questions the evidence, mentioning 40 more cases in a different category. 4. McCallum to Simeon GM 4, SB 6 Roadside drug testing is back. Even though those tests aren't reliable... another strike against evidence-based policing. 'Alcohol and drugs are the number 1 contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand' - Simeon. Mostly alcohol. 50,000 oral fluid tests each year. If 2 oral fluid tests are positive, then they'll take an evidentiary fluid test. 5. Edmonds to Brown BE 5, SB 5 Simeon standing in for Nicola. Tax relief isn't likely to significantly contract the economy. This really isn't the same as watching live. Can't hear the interjections. 'Some of it may be saved' 'They hate the idea of New Zealanders keeping more of what they earn' - Simeon 6. Redmayne to McClay SR 5, TM 6
More pro-farming bullshit. 'Sensible changes to allow farmers to get on with the job' - McClay Devolution. 'Farm-level and regionally suitable solutions' Repealing intensive winter grazing regulations. 'Rebalance the rights of all water users' -- that's a dogwhistle. 'Get Wellington out of farming' - McClay 7. McAnulty to Potaka KMA 5, TP 5 'This Government ... are about tough decisions' - Potaka. Transitional housing. Are they planning to cut it? An underspend on transitional housing was spent on the review by Bill English. Boring question. It's essentially a corruption question. 8. Arbuckle to Patterson JA 4, MP 5 Regional development. 'Regional New Zealand is the backbone of our country' - NZ First Flood protection. Every dollar spent on it saves $8-9 of damage. Another snoozer: even Brownlee chided Patterson for being boring. Snarky supplementary from Megan Woods. 9. Brewer to Bayly CB 5, AB 7 Consumer data rights. 'Controlled and secure access to data ... greater competition in the banking and electricity sectors ... choice and competition are good things, as they ultimately lead to lower prices' - Bayly. Australians can get a mortgage sorted in 10 minutes online. We can't. Duncan Webb noted that this was built from Arena's work for Labour. Bayly is a good orator. Sounds like a lawyer, though, which is something that I dislike regarding Parliament: that's not how most Kiwis sound. 10. Radhakrishnan to Upston PR 6, LU 4 Disability rights. The Ministry of Education is apparently responsible for supporting disabled children during school hours, not Whaikaha. Another anecdote. That's been a feature of this Parliament. This is triggering: I feel strongly about disability issues, and it also demonstrates how they might go about restricting my rights (which NZ First is planning to do). I really dislike Upston. This is such fake sincerity, given the vitriol that she's heaped on the dole bludgers and single Mums. Crocodile tears. 11. Mariameno to Brown MK 6, SB 5 Māori Wards. 'An overreach of local decision-making' - Mariameno, quoting Mayors from regional New Zealand. 'Why should they be afraid of what the public have to say ... what is wrong with local democracy ... localism is giving people the right to make their say through the ballot box' - Simeon 'Why Māori wards and not rural wards?' - Mariameno. This is really racist. Watch it. 12. Celia Wade-Brown to Simeon Brown CWB 6, SB 4 Another Māori Wards question. I forgot she was an MP now. 'Councils have stated that the cost of these referendums will be worn by ratepayers' - Celia. 'Just admit you don't like Māori' - I heard that interjection. Who was that? 🤣 'Local communities through the ballot box' - Simeon. He's ruthless, and that's why I thought that a stoat was a good choice to represent him. 'Is this a deliberate tactic to reduce Māori representation?' - Celia He's ducking the question. 'What's wrong with a little bit of democracy?' 'Implementing the policy that we were elected to do' - Simeon.
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