Saturday 27 October 2012

Some Patsy Questions


Ian McKelvie leading drone...

These individuals each receive around a hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year as members of parliament [with small capitals]…

They are the gun fodder of the National Party. Ministers write their questions, their task is to ask them, to the very same people who wrote them, beat that for honesty.

It’s a heartless task but a well rewarded one. Their first role is to make Minister’s look intelligent, bold and decisive. In most cases that is impossible because very few are intelligent, bold or decisive. They could be called ‘Drones’.

It is the nature of drones to act like drones and they do. Take a look at a typical question time input from National Party drones, these were asked on the 24th and 25th of October 2012:

DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) to the Minister of Finance: What measures has the Government taken to support families through the global financial crisis? [Does Bennett not know the answer to this inane question?]

David Bennett: How much will the Government invest this year in programmes that support New Zealand families?

KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National) to the Minister for Economic Development: What is the Government doing to encourage businesses to invest, and grow jobs? [Does Singh Bakshi not know this, surely he must be joking]

Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) to the Minister for Social
Development: What changes will the White Paper for Vulnerable Children make to better support professionals working with children? [Good God haven’t you read the bill before it hit the floor of parliament]

Nikki Kaye: How much is the Government spending on improving community facilities in greater Christchurch? [It was in the ministers press release Nikki, don’t you read your local paper]

Dr JIAN YANG (National) to the Minister for ACC: How will the Government improve accidental injury outcomes for under-six-year-olds? [What a stupid question, do you think they will provide playpens?]

On this day the government knew that the opposition parties were in attack mode over the behaviour of the Prime Minister about his sudden memory losses about the GCSB, Kim Dotcom, voting over the drinking age and general matters of performance. This being the case they used question time to get out some good news.

Even a quick glance over the questions listed above shows a pattern, the first was ethnic use.

It’s well known that Maori don’t vote National and with past leaders like Don Brash and supporters like John Banks and Act you can’t blame Maori for ignoring National Candidates.

So National fills this vacuum with other Ethnic groups via their list seats. On this particular day they called on their ethic drones to ask questions, written by ministers to those very same ministers. The Indian, Chinese and Pacifica groups all got their turn on Wednesday and like drones they asked their patsy questions along with a few supplementary questions.

I don’t doubt that Dr Jian Yang, Sam Lotu-liga and Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi are capable of writing their own questions but they are simply not allowed for if they did then some honesty might be required in answers to those questions.

The next day saw other drones take a turn

LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister of Finance: How is the Government’s infrastructure programme contributing to building a more competitive economy?
[Surely that question would be best suited to the Minister of everything Steven Joyce…well it was because Bill English was away as is normal on a Thursday…so Steven Joyce answered for him and no doubt wrote the question…shame on you Louise]

IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei) to the Minister for Social Development: What announcements has she made to review Child Youth and Family’s complaints process?
[That’s a silly question Ian, everyone knows she will simply release the info via the internet and hope for the best…you should stick to asking patsy questions about sheep, cows and other various other farm animals human questions are out of your range]

I think that is enough examples of the National Drone team in action to make my point.

No doubt these drones will continue to buzz at question time. Like worker bees they will automatically ask their patsy questions and get patted to the head by the Queen bee. With a bit of luck they may get rewarded, regardless we should keep a close eye on them because we are paying for these insect style behaviours…and it is not cheap





No comments: