Maori Language Week in the House begins with the Speaker, David Carter, reading the daily prayer in te reo. While several MPs ask questions in te reo many are non-plussed when they can’t find their headsets to hear the interpretation of the answers from the Minister for Maori Development, Te Ururoa Flavell. Seven of the daily dozen questions for oral answer by ministers are about housing. The government’s insistence that it has a comprehensive plan to increase supply of housing attracts such loud ridicule from the Opposition benches that the Speaker has to intervene. Complaints in questions from Labour’s Pacific Island Affairs spokesman, Su’a William Sio, about declining home ownership among Pacific peoples is in contrast to an announcement from the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, Steven Joyce, of new centres for Asia/Pacific excellence.
short week
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