Oral Questions for Thursday 30 March 2023

Questions to Ministers TERISA NGOBI to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: What additional support will be available for New Zealanders and their families from 1 April? BROOKE van VELDEN to the Minister of Housing: How many additional permanent and fixed-term full-time equivalent staff were employed by Kainga Ora in December 2022 as compared with December 2019, and how many additional homes did Kainga Ora manage in December 2022 as compared with December 2019? NICOLA WILLIS to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that "in 2021, Stuart Nash's then ministerial office consulted the office of the then Prime Minister on an Official Information Act request release where that email had been identified as part of that release"; if so, why was that request release escalated to the Prime Minister's office for consultation? RACHEL BROOKING to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has he seen on the New Zealand economy? CHRIS BISHOP to the Minister for the Environment: Does he agree with the Cabinet minute that stated "now is not the time for regulatory uncertainty ... or to impose new costs on businesses and households", and is he confident that the Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Bills are consistent with that statement? DAN ROSEWARNE to the Minister for Veterans: What is the Government doing to support veterans? Dr SHANE RETI to the Minister of Health: Has she seen St John Ambulance data released this week showing that the amount of time ambulances are ramped while waiting to admit patients to hospital emergency departments has more than trebled since 2019, and are ambulances being used as ED waiting rooms? NAISI CHEN to the Minister for Youth: What recent reports has she seen evaluating the outcomes of programmes designed to support and empower rangatahi? ERICA STANFORD to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by her statement when asked if she could explain how it is fair for one child in one school to get an hour of maths a day, as recommended by the Royal Society, while a child in another school the same age gets far less, "Oh yes, absolutely I can"; if so, does she accept this variation has contributed to the widening gap in maths achievement for New Zealand students? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER to the Minister of Transport: Does he agree with advice from Waka Kotahi that providing an additional Waitemata Harbour road crossing would result in over 3,000 vehicles entering the city at AM peak, compared with a light rail - only option; if so, will any of the options proposed, which all include an additional road, reduce congestion? MARJA LUBECK to the Minister for Courts: What progress has been made to reduce delays in the coronial system? MATT DOOCEY to the Minister of Health: Why has the year three stocktake of the Budget 2019 Mental Health and Addiction package found the delivery status of the mental health infrastructure programme has "not meaningfully improved" since the previous Health Minister, Andrew Little, said he was "extraordinarily frustrated ... we seem to be a long way behind actually getting a shovel in the ground", and why did the $30 million allocated to support delivery result in a finding that the programme has not accelerated and estimated completion dates are unlikely to be met?