Hansard

Mr Speaker took the chair at 1.15 p.m.

NINA WHITELEY (West Coast - Tasman): I seek leave to have the Minister of Youth Affairs clarify a point on a Bill currently before this House.

Mr SPEAKER: That is not normally permitted under the Standing Orders, but I was alerted to it beforehand. In view of the fact that we did not have what we call a Committee stage on the Bill, where the Minister would normally answer questions about details of the Bill, I am inclined to allow it. Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There appears to be none.

NINA WHITELEY: Does the wording: ``An Act to amend the Education Act 1989 to provide for parity between the minimum rate of student allowance and the unemployment benefit'' mean that parent income means-testing will be abolished?

Hon. DEBORAH MORRIS (Minister of Youth Affairs): No, it does not. What this Bill is intended to do is to ensure that if a person is eligible for a student allowance, that person gets the same level of entitlement as the unemployment benefit. Given that the third reading of the Bill is still to be debated, there is nothing to prevent the member from debating the further issue of means testing.

MARIEKE DEGEEST (Dunedin North): I move, That this House recognise the importance of the National Youth Choir and wish it well for the forthcoming year's activities.

MARIANA HUKA (List): I move, That this House recall that the topic of the bill debated at the last Youth Parliament was the lowering of the drinking age and note that this matter is now under consideration by the Government.

Motion agreed to.

KEVIN LUONG (Waipareira): I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Before the House proceeds, can I say that it is common knowledge that supplementary questions are a part of any democratic Parliament; may I ask if we are being discriminated against?

Mr SPEAKER: The Standing Orders with which the member has been issued include provision for supplementary questions. They are under the control of the Chair, so we shall see how we go.

1. JARRAD TILYARD (List) to the Treasurer: In what ways is the Government making foreign investment more attractive, and does he class foreign investment as one of his top priorities?

Hon. WINSTON PETERS (Treasurer): Foreign investment is important because New Zealand is a small country with a small population without a strong savings record. We therefore need overseas investment to help our country grow, and to this end we have made our overseas investment policies very, very clear. However, whilst recognising this, the coalition Government agrees that as a matter of principle it is desirable that the control and ownership of important New Zealand assets, particularly strategic assets, land, and resources, are held by New Zealanders.

Aiden Silbery-Shoji: What about Telecom?

Hon. WINSTON PETERS: A very good interjection; the member might well ask about Telecom, but he is asking the wrong man and the wrong Government. Telecom was sold by the Labour Government back in 1994 for a fire-sale price.

2. DAVID ARNOLD (Rangitikei) to the Treasurer: How can the Government justify spending close to $100 million on parliamentary buildings when the money can be better utilised elsewhere?

Hon. WINSTON PETERS (Treasurer): The decision that the member is speaking about was made 2 years ago. It arises from previous decisions by previous Governments.

An Hon. Member: The Minister is passing the buck.

Hon. WINSTON PETERS: It is not a case of passing the buck; the buck rests with those who made the decision. Had the Labour Government of 1988--89 made a decision to build a building at a cost of $43 million, which was the option----

Lucila van Dam: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Minister's answer is required to be to the point. His answer was too long.

Mr SPEAKER: If only it was! The Speaker has no control over the content of

the Minister's answer. Mr Peters has a lot of text to get through yet, so I presume he will come somewhere near addressing the question.

Hon. WINSTON PETERS: Had the Labour Cabinet taken the right decision in 1989 in respect of the most favoured option of a $43 million building----which I am happy to disclose by way of release of Treasury papers----instead of deciding to build Bowen House, which a Labour member recently described as a ``dog'', a new building would not now be necessary. The savings from the alternative to a new building are not that great, and we are committed to ongoing consideration of further savings so that the new building becomes, in financial terms, the best option.

3. AYESHA VERRALL (Clutha - Southland) to the Treasurer: What allowances have been made for the effect of the projected increases in student debt, and the possible introduction of a compulsory superannuation scheme, on the income of the generation about to enter the workforce?

Hon. WINSTON PETERS (Treasurer): To answer the second part of the question first, in respect of the retirement savings scheme regime a design team will be announcing its findings in a white paper due for public release in early July. I cannot therefore say too much about it until that design team has had its recommendations approved by, firstly, Cabinet then others. But the Government will provide a guaranteed top-up to allow all New Zealanders who reach 65 years of age to buy an annuity equal to the superannuation payout as at 1 July next year. As many features of the current scheme that are capable of being made permanent will be transferred to the new scheme. Today's students face a future where the number of workers per superannuitant will decline from today's figure of five workers per superannuitant to little over two workers per superannuitant in the next century. The question of future student debt levels is a present consideration of this Government, and in this current term we will announce our plans to deal with it.

Counselling Services: Te Puku o Te Whenua

4. ARIA MULLINS (List) to the Minister of Health: Counselling services throughout the Te Puku o Te Whenua area are very scarce. He once quoted that the Government would help prevent this problem. What steps have been taken?

Hon. BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Health): Counselling is provided to children and young people from a range of services, including health, education, and welfare----for example, school guidance counsellors and Youthline. In health, we are concentrating specifically on the area of mental health, and over the next 3 or 4 years around $140 million is to be spent over and above normal spending on mental health. One of the priorities within that is to provide better mental health services for children, young people, and adolescents, which will also include counselling.

5. SAMUAL McLEOD (Tukituki) to the Minister of Health: What is being done combat the image that only ``weirdos'' need to seek counselling?

Hon. BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Health): To a large extent that kind of terminology reflects common community prejudices, and in many ways students can do as much about that as a Government can, by rebutting those prejudices where possible. We are at the moment considering a public campaign, to be run perhaps later in the year or next year, aimed at specifically changing community attitudes to people with a mental illness. We have been consulting a large number of groups interested in that area, to see whether we can do that in a way that challenges community perceptions without making them worse.

6. JONATHAN SCRAGG (List) to the Minister of Health: The people of Christchurch have been waiting for a cardiothoracic heart unit for over 20 years. Can he give an assurance a unit will be set up?

Hon. BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Health): I can give an assurance that it will be set up this year. As the questioner has pointed out, it is an issue that has now been running for 23 years, in fact. Many other Governments have been unable to get a service in Christchurch. This Government will, after 23 years, succeed in putting a service in place. This issue is controversial because so many people have extremely strong views about it. We will not get a service in place that satisfies everybody, but I can assure students it will be a service that is adequate for the patients, and that provides a service that is needed right now by seriously ill people in Christchurch.

Jonathan Scragg: With all due respect to the Minister, that is exactly the same sort of answer that the people of Christchurch have been receiving for the last 23 years. I would like to ask the Minister whether he can outline a plan for a cardiothoracic unit that is funded from the public purse and not half privately owned.

Hon. BILL ENGLISH: There have been a number of plans to put a publicly funded cardiac service into the public hospital, to be carried out by current surgeons with the patients not having to pay anything. None of those issues are in question. But I say to the member, who is perhaps from Christchurch, that one of the reasons this unit has never been established is the deep and totally irrational parochialism that exists between Christchurch and Dunedin. We will overcome that in the next few months, and there will be a service in place. Members will believe it when they see it.