1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterWEDNESDAY 31 JULY 2019The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.ORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his Government's statements policies and actions?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Acting Prime Minister): Yes. [Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! Amy Adams since you've had diminished responsibilities your behaviour has diminished consistently. I call the Hon Kelvin Davis—Hon Grant Robertson: He's already answered the question.SPEAKER: Oh sorry. Well I'm going to ask the member to answer it again because I was distracted.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Yes.Hon Simon Bridges: Is he concerned that more New Zealanders think the economy will be in a worse state in the next year than think it will be in a better state; and does he think that the Government's policies have played a role in the growing level of economic pessimism?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No.Hon Simon Bridges: Does he agree with Grant Robertson who said declining business confidence is a vote of no confidence in the government by the business sector"?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: At the time that Mr Robertson said that he was actually talking about the National Government.Hon Simon Bridges: Is it still true?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No.Hon Simon Bridges: So is it a case that the Government thinks a vote of no confidence in the Government by the business sector is true when there's declining business confidence under National but not under Labour?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The New Zealand economy continues to grow solidly in the face of global uncertainty—we know that. GDP grew 0.6 percent in the March quarter higher than Australia and the OECD. Annual growth is 2.7 percent; the average under National was 2.1 percent growth. Our per capita GDP grew 0.9 percent over the year—same as the average per capita growth under National. The performance of services index continued to expand in June higher than comparable countries; so did the performance of manufacturing index—it expanded faster in June than in May. The Consumers Price Index (CPI) shows the economy growing strongly compared to the rest of the world. We've got near historic low unemployment of 4.2 percent and wages are rising.Hon Simon Bridges: To quote the Prime Minister how does CPI show the economy growing strongly?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: It's about everything that I've just outlined. It's showing that the economy is growing and this is the thing: they don't like to admit that this country is actually going ahead under us when it went backwards under them.Hon Simon Bridges: What is the CPI—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Who made that noise?Greg O'Connor: I stand withdraw and apologise.SPEAKER: Another one and the member will be out.Hon Simon Bridges: Does he agree with Grant Robertson who said declining business confidence is "a vote of no confidence in the government by the business sector"?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: As I've said I tend to agree with many things that the Hon Grant Robertson says because he's a hard-working and very successful Minister of Finance. The big thing is that our economy is growing is doing well—near historic low unemployment higher wages. In all of these measures that I've said we're doing as well as if not better than what the previous Government did.Hon Simon Bridges: Are business confidence figures out today that show declining six points to a net negative 44 a vote of no confidence in the Government by the business sector?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No; it's a reflection of international circumstances. Also business confidence is an opinion survey. We know that businesses are looking at the international economic uncertainty and factoring that into their responses to these sentiment surveys. We're a small open export economy and so global economic conditions do have an impact.Hon Simon Bridges: So does he agree with Minister David Parker that business confidence is "junk"?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No. As I said the business confidence is an opinion survey.Hon Simon Bridges: Does he agree with Grant Robertson who said "kicking off a house-building programme like KiwiBuild would give business more confidence in the future"; and if so when are they going to start building houses?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: We have started building houses. In fact we've got the biggest house-building programme since the 1970s—more than they ever did.Hon Simon Bridges: Should the Government ensure houses are built at Ihumātao?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Ihumātao is a very complex and fluid situation. We're very mindful of making sure that we don't undermine business decisions. We've got to make sure that we don't undermine private property rights we've got to make sure we don't undermine settlements that have already occurred and we've got to make sure that we don't undermine settlements that are yet to occur.Hon Simon Bridges: Is it true that the Government's involvement in Ihumātao has stopped more houses being built than his Government's delivered so far under KiwiBuild?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No."