Questions for Oral Answer
As At Tuesday, 2 September 2003

Questions to Ministers
1. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Prime Minister: Has she seen the 17 July 2002 memo from Ruth Wilkie to Dr Mark Prebble regarding his decision to withhold from public release notes to the Prime Minister on the management of potentially contaminated corn seed, and in which Ms Wilkie states that "Mary Anne Thompson reported to you and me that the PM was prepared to have these notes released if necessary"; if so, did she have a meeting or discussion which would have led Mary Anne Thompson to make such a report?

2. GEORGINA BEYER to the Minister of Housing: How many State houses have been added to the Government's social housing stock since 1999?

3. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Prime Minister: Does she have confidence in each of her Ministers?

4. MARC ALEXANDER to the Minister of Broadcasting: Does he expect Broadcasting Communications Limited to remain the broadcast platform for the Maori Television Service; if not, why not?

5. Hon Dr NICK SMITH to the Minister for the Environment: Does she stand by her statement of 24 July 2002 that the "Government never deviated from its policy of zero tolerance for GM contamination in seed imports."?

6. Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY to the Minister of Education: What initiatives, if any, has the Government taken to encourage children to become familiar with New Zealand authors?

7. Dr MURIEL NEWMAN to the Minister of Maori Affairs: Was Maori Television Service Chairman, Mr Walden, correct when he stated "at no time has the Maori Television Service sought any kind of confidentiality agreement with Mr Fox. Nor has it restrained him from discussing the reasons for his resignation"; and, given that taxpayers' money is involved, when will the public be given an account of what is going on?

8. JEANETTE FITZSIMONS to the Minister for the Environment: Is she satisfied with the progress the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) has made in addressing the recommendations of the review of ERMA; if so, why?

9. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Prime Minister: How does she reconcile her statements on TV3 on Wednesday 10 July 2002 that "we really went back and sought further information as to whether there was a threshold level that had been breached. That's my recollection." and "my recollection was that on testing and sampling it was determined that it didn't pass a sufficient threshold level to be considered a problem." with the statement by her Minister for the Environment that the "Government never deviated from its policy of zero tolerance for GM contamination in seed imports."?

10. STEVE CHADWICK to the Minister of Tourism: What is being done to encourage recovery in the inbound tourism market from Japan?

11. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Prime Minister: Does she have confidence in the Minister of Research, Science and Technology and Convenor, Ministerial Group on Climate Change; if so, why?

12. Hon MATT ROBSON to the Minister for Industry and Regional Development: What commitment has the Government given recently to high tech companies which meet the objectives of the coalition Government's Growth and Innovation Framework to establish New Zealand as a centre of excellence for innovative development?

Questions to Members
1. Hon RICHARD PREBBLE to the Chairperson of the Local Government and Environment Committee: Will the chairperson be requesting the Prime Minister to attend a meeting of the committee in relation to the inquiry into "corngate"; if so, when?

2. DAVID PARKER to the Chairperson of the Local Government and Environment Committee: When will the committee next meet to discuss the inquiry into the alleged accidental release of genetically engineered sweet corn plants in 2000 and the subsequent actions taken?

ENDS

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