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Thursday 26 July 2012

Is There Something I Should Know?

Question 4 today sounded very interesting.  Many of the answers were in te reo, and as my knowledge of te reo is too poor to have kept up with the comings and goings I was looking forward to reading the transcript. It seemed to me that Ms Turei had Dr Sharples on the rocks for a while, there.  So I was disappointed to find this kind of thing:

Metiria Turei: Does the Minister, then, also agree that the human right of Māori children to decent housing is breached by the Government’s cuts to State and social housing provision, which currently condemns 28 percent of Māori children to living in overcrowded homes?
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES:
  • [Authorised te reo text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
  • [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I just want to clarify with you. It could be an issue to do with translation, but during question time it has been very clear that Ministers are answering on behalf of the Government, not on behalf of their individual political parties, and twice in question time, in the interpretation—I do not speak Te Reo Māori, so I just want to check that I am correct here—the Minister has indicated he is replying on behalf of the Māori Party, not on behalf of the Government.
Mr SPEAKER: The member is quite correct that Ministers are replying in their role as a Minister, as part of the Government. However, they are at liberty to introduce into their answers other material if it helps them answer the question asked. The risk they face in doing that is if they bring into their answer material to do with their party, they can then be asked about that, when normally they cannot be asked about that. The Minister is not normally answerable in this House for matters to do with the Māori Party. However, the Minister has, as the member points out, on a couple of occasions introduced the Māori Party into his answers, and, therefore, the Minister can be asked about those matters that he has covered in his answers.
Te Ururoa Flavell:
  • [Authorised te reo text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
  • [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES:
  • [Authorised te reo text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]
  • [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]

Surely it is possible to get a translation and transcript out in an hour or two, or is te reo not really an equal language?

The Green Party have shown that they are very good questioners.  I've also noted that they rarely resort to points of order, relying instead on the strength of their questions.  Sadly, Winston and Labour are being shown up, day after day, by the (rela

Duran Duran - Arena, 1984

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