1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterCHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. In particular I stand by this Government's decision to bring forward a reconnection to the world to allow Australian friends whānau and tourists to re-enter New Zealand from 11.59 p.m. tonight. This comes just in time for Easter weekend and the school holidays and will help accelerate our economic recovery from COVID-19. This will be a welcome boost to sectors who have done it tough as we welcome Australian tourists back to our bars restaurants and tourism hotspots. With the recent removal of mandatory My Vaccine Pass requirements the expansion of capacity limits case numbers falling daily and our reopening to the wider world on 1 May New Zealand is once again a prime destination for international tourists. The past few years have been incredibly tough not least for our tourism sector but we're primed to welcome old friends and family back. Christopher Luxon: Is it a good outcome that under Labour serious assaults have more than doubled and violent crime is up over 20 percent?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Firstly if any Government of the day is wanting to respond to crime generally you would expect them to have the strongest possible police force and police numbers. This Government has been restoring police numbers since the last term of the National Government. We have an additional 1400 police an additional $450 million in funding. We have an additional 700 police working on organised crime an extra 350 police on the beat in Auckland. Alongside that additional powers like firearms prevention orders and of course the seizure of firearms not least the 60000 we've taken off the street through the gun buy-back. When it comes to crime as it relates to population growth generally we've seen relatively static numbers across a period of time. When you look at what has changed around violent crime reporting it is difficult to make comparisons. Since 2018 there has been a change in some of the reporting that is available for family harm and that is actually the area where you've seen some of the greatest increase and we want people to report family harm. So when you start comparing it is difficult to draw those comparisons but overall you've seen a relatively static rate against population growth. Christopher Luxon: Does she believe 50000 more Kiwis on jobseeker for longer than a year and 36000 more children growing up in a benefit-dependent home is a good outcome for the extra $1.6 billion a year being spent under Labour? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I always like to come back to our record and the facts and we have a lower share of working-age population on benefit in December 2021 than in the global financial crisis: 11.7 percent compared to 13.1 percent. We have 96000 fewer people than Treasury forecast receiving a main benefit in January 2021 and more than 100000 more people are employed now than they were 12 months ago. We have just gone through and are in an economic crisis. It is important that we have adequate safety nets for people but at the same time we also have the programmes in place that are supporting people into work and the facts speak for themselves. Christopher Luxon: Was delivering no improvement in access to mental health services in five years a good outcome for spending $1.9 billion?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I would be really interested in what the member considers no action when we have 270000 sessions delivered to date by more than 300 general practice sites covering 2 million people. That did not exist before this Government. We have 14000 people every month getting support through that service. That did not happen before this Government. We have funded counsellors across 164 schools on top of the counsellors in schools programmes many schools already have. We have front-line mental health services like Piki. We've invested in new and existing mental health and addiction facilities. We were able to re-establish the Mental Health Commission and we've expanded Mana Ake to five different DHBs. I call that outcomes.Christopher Luxon: Is it a good outcome that every single national performance measure for the health system including emergency department wait times and cancer treatment have got worse under Labour?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: And this is where I find it woeful to have the National Party who invested nothing—nothing—in health capital over their time in office. When we came into office—need I remind the member—we had mould and waste running down the walls of some of our hospitals there was a woeful lack of investment we had DHBs struggling. And that is why on this side of the House we have introduced health reforms to fundamentally change health services in New Zealand and I look forward to the member's support of those.Christopher Luxon: Was Auckland DHB CEO Ailsa Claire correct when she wrote to staff about that half-a-billion-dollar health restructure set to begin in less than three months telling them There's a lot of work and planning to do as to what this means for DHBs. So please don't feel you're missing out on knowing something: this work simply hasn't taken place yet"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What you'll find from the health workforce is broad support for exactly what we are doing to fundamentally reform the health system in New Zealand. No one I would hope in this House would want to see a situation where year on year we have continually increased the health budget to record levels but we are not seeing health services universally improve across the country. We have a healthcare postcode where depending on where you live sometimes determines the type of service you receive. And worse yet we have inequitable outcomes where if you're Māori and Pasifika your health outcomes are worse. We as a Government are making changes to the system to improve all of that.Christopher Luxon: Is it a good outcome that 760 people in the Southern DHB have waited a year or more for an operation or does she agree with DHB chairman Pete Hodgson's assessment of the health system under Labour that "The social contract has been broken. They paid their taxes they've been entered into the system and it didn't do them a blind bit of good"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again someone supporting the health reforms that we have put in place—also a member in Pete Hodgson who was closely supportive of the Dunedin Hospital project another example of health infrastructure that is under way under this Government. There are a number of examples of why we need to reform the system. If the member wishes to continue to read them out I will once again remind him that every single one is proof of why we need change."