QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER
Wednesday, 18 October 2000
Questions to Ministers
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1. OWEN JENNINGS to the Minister of Social Services and Employment: What are the reasons for the 22% growth in persons
registered unemployed over one year to 108,511, since the election, and what steps are being taken to reverse this
trend?
2. HELEN DUNCAN to the Minister of Education: What reports has he received on the amount of funding the Auckland region
gained as a result of the removal of bulk-funding and the implementation of the Government's Resourcing for the Future
package?
3. Rt Hon WYATT CREECH to the Minister of Finance: Will the Government be making an announcement on research and
development policy at the Business Forum next week; if so, will it be a continuation of the current grants scheme, a
change to 100% tax deductibility as promised in the Labour Party pre-election policy, or will it be a policy of partial
deductibility where research spending carried as an expense in a company's accounts can be written off as a tax break?
4. KEITH LOCKE to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Does the Government support a self-determination process
for West Papua so that the people can democratically determine their own political future; if not, why not?
5. Hon BILL ENGLISH to the Minister of Finance: Does he agree with Retail Merchants Association chief executive John
Albertson who said, in relation to the September quarter consumer price index result, that "we've probably only picked
up in the tail end of that period the start of what might be ahead of us in terms of this very heavy cost pressure"; if
not, why not?
6. JUDY KEALL to the Minister of Health: What initiatives is she taking in the health workforce area to address
workforce shortages?
7. Hon ROGER SOWRY to the Minister of Immigration: Has she identified the officials she stated had not told her the
truth; if so, what action has she taken to ensure that this does not happen again?
8. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS to the Minister of Fisheries: Are negotiations for the sale of BIL's share of Sealords
progressing towards completion?
9. Hon TONY RYALL to the Minister of Corrections: How is his decision to consider a home detention "get out early" plan
for violent offenders consistent with the public's wishes, as expressed in the Norm Withers referendum?
10. DIANNE YATES to the Minister of Agriculture: What reports has he received about radioactive material being spread
on Waikato farms?
11. Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON to the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education): What scholarships was he
referring to when he said yesterday "We'll begin to reshape the use of that money into scholarships to provide support
for students who wouldn't normally get a scholarship, expand the net a bit and bring more people through into areas that
we think logically there should be more students studying.", and how do they differ from the scholarship areas announced
in the Bright Future package last year?
12. DAVID BENSON-POPE to the Minister for Information Technology: What reports has he received recently about the
uptake of information technology by New Zealand business compared with that in Australia?