Best reply ever
June 29th, 2012 at 11:33 am by David FarrarFrom the parliamentary written questions database:
3061 (2012). Gareth Hughes to the Minister of Energy and Resources (20 Apr 2012): Where, to the best of the Minister’s knowledge, has hydraulic fracturing occured in New Zealand?Hon Phil Heatley (Minister of Energy and Resources) replied: Underground.
Heh. MPs need to be precise with how they ask questions 
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June 29th, 2012 at 11:46 am
Someone should tell Gareth Hughes that the word occurred has two R’s. From memory, only MPs can type in written questions to the system. It may have changed, so perhaps it’s just one of his staffers that can’t spell.
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 11:50 am
Hughes strikes me as having lots of potential, but there’s no shortcutting experience.
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 11:55 am
While that line is good for a laugh, I hope that Phil Heatley then went on to answer the question.
Anything else is just showing contempt for the process.
[DPF: These are written, not oral questions. All Gareth has to do is resubmit it and say “In which territorial authoritity areas has fracking occured …”
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Probably just showing justifiable contempt for the smarmy little prick asking stupid questions.
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
@thomasbeagle
“While that line is good for a laugh, I hope that Phil Heatley then went on to answer the question”
The ‘man-child’ Hughes could also stop the ‘huffing and puffing’, get of his bum and find the information himself.
http://www.trc.govt.nz/assets/Publications/guidelines-procedures-and-publications/Fresh-water-2/fracking-report-feb2012.pdf
Lots of potential?
Vote:Sure, as a ‘fact free’ hypocritical lying totalitarian ‘chicken little’ econazi.
June 29th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Where have you been? It’s funny when the NActs do it.
It’s only a “cynical born-to-rule-attitude” when ministers of a Labour government treat the system with contempt.
Meanwhile, we’ll endlessly decry “the hypocrisy of the Left…” with a straight face
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
It’s stupid, imprecise question and it deserved the response it got. What does “where” mean? North Island? Taranaki? Exact GPS co-ordinates?
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
I have some sympathy for thomasbeagle’s point about treating questions seriously. But I can also empathise with dissing such a question, it’s so general you could almost call it a pointless waste of a Minister’s time.
It’s difficult to see what Hughes was trying to achieve, apart from being seen to be active.
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
WELL AT LEAST THE SYSTEM DIDN’T WASTE MY MONEY LOOKING FOR POINTLESS ANSWERS TO AN EVEN MORE POINTLESS QUESTION.
Sorry about the caps. but its makes the point even more really for the dumb arses who don’t underconstumble.
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
> All Gareth has to do is resubmit it..
Thanks, I don’t ever want to hear you whine about taxpayers money being wasted.
[DPF: No waste of money involved. Gareth is on a salary, not an hourly rate!]
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Dumb question got a dumb answer. (Was funny though)
Vote:June 29th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
TB – Heatley did answer the question in full. If a question has no depth, the answer does not need to either to fully answer it.
Vote:It was almost a closed question such as ‘Has Fracking occurred in NZ?’ – ‘Yes’
Scary to think this young idiot can be a minister in government 1 day.
June 30th, 2012 at 2:15 am
@Lazybum The question said to the best of his knowledge. The depth is defined by the minister’s knowledge, which, unsurprisingly, is shallow.
Vote:June 30th, 2012 at 9:33 am
Yes, it was a funny answer. From the Minister’s perspective, the best type: quick, accurate and totally useless to the questioner. Minister Heatley and I had a laugh about it in the house and a few days later he came back with a fuller response. From that answer we uncovered historical fracking in Southland which involved dumping millions of litres of produced water with fracking chemicals down the local stream, which the council in 2012 wasn’t aware had occurred.
[DPF: Glad you saw the humour in it, and also glad you did then get the info you wanted]
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