Carter David; Tolley AnneRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): It's a pleasure to have a contribution in the Budget Policy Statement debate and particularly a pleasure to follow on from the Hon James Shaw who correctly pointed out that the only thing the Government can do in this situation is control expenditure. So I suggest that the Hon James Shaw has a very quick word with his parliamentary colleague—in fact his Cabinet colleague—the Hon Shane Jones and starts controlling expenditure because the revelation yesterday and again in the House today of over $1 million wasted by officials going around the country trying to solicit bids for the Provincial Growth Fund trying to solicit bids for the slush fund developed by New Zealand First—absolute waste of money.Darroch Ball: What did you guys do for the regions?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Well Darroch Ball will have his chance for a valedictory speech very shortly; he doesn't need to start now. It's not far away Mr Ball. But I suggest that if the Hon James Shaw wants to do anything to help the situation that the Government finds itself in start talking to his own Cabinet colleagues and start to control some of the expenditure that is clearly being wasted.I do acknowledge that of the many Budget Policy Statement debates I've been involved in none has been quite like this one when we've had such a short time lag between the publication of the Budget Policy Statement and such significant changes in the economic outlook to the extent that the document we're discussing today is completely outdated. Of course it was signed off by the Minister the Hon Grant Robertson with a huge photograph and a smile on his face on 11 December 2019 and here we are less than three months on; the situation has changed dramatically.We at the Finance and Expenditure Committee had the opportunity to talk to both the Secretary to the Treasury the Governor of the Reserve Bank and the Minister himself before we prepared the report. I note that Tamati Coffey's in the House; he will have remembered my contribution and my question as we deliberated on this report. If he looks at page 5 there's a bold heading there: The outlook for the economy remains positive". I took issue with this; I said "I don't think we're being realistic in saying the outlook to the economy remains positive."We heard—in fact we quote—the rate of economic growth is projected to rise in 2020 and beyond—the outlook for GDP growth to increase from 2.2 percent in 2019 to over 2.8 percent in 2021. I said to the committee at the time "That headline is misleading." But I think it might have been the chair herself who wanted me to then look at the next headline which was—and I quote—"But the full impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the economy is unknown". And with that I totally agree because I remember the questions we raised of the Secretary to the Treasury and of Adrian Orr the Governor of the Reserve Bank. We were asking them: what about the effect of COVID-19? This is now three weeks after the outbreak had reached prominence in China so it was early in the current worldwide development of COVID-19. Neither Mrs McLeish or Mr Orr had a clue as to how COVID-19 would affect the New Zealand economy. I don't say that as a criticism of those two officers. The world was in uncharted territory. We had a pandemic developing at that stage in Mainland China the risk of outbreaks to other countries and as we've all seen—in the months since we signed the report off before the Finance and Expenditure Committee—this pandemic has moved from Mainland China. In fact Mainland China I would suggest has basically got it under control but you've got countries like Iran you've got countries like Italy you've got potential developments in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. You've certainly got cases in our own nearest major trading partner of course Australia and we've got positive cases here in New Zealand. So I say to the Government: the impression you are giving New Zealand voters is that as a Government you're scrambling to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. In the Budget Policy Statement we would hope we'd have some surety from people like Adrian Orr but we didn't get it. And I'll give you an example of why I say this amateurish Government is struggling to respond. And we saw it today in the House with questions to the Minister for Social Development around the response of Social Development to the potential for people to be laid off from jobs and then their eligibility for the jobseeker benefit—the dole which she won't allow to be called the dole but most people know it as the dole. The Minister informed the House as had been actually made public probably a week ago that they'd adjusted the stand-down period. Positive move—a good move. But what I was alarmed to hear today in the House in question time is that doesn't become effective until 23 March—Andrew Bayly: What?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: 23 March was what the Minister said in the House today. So there's an opportunity for the Minister for Social Development to actually respond positively to the outbreak of COVID-19 both in New Zealand and the effect it will have on the economy and again either through laziness or through incompetence she hasn't made an immediate announcement to fix the stand-down period. She hasn't even asked her own ministry to update reports about what potential rise in numbers to the jobseeker benefit there could be because of COVID-19. And it's that sort of response that you're getting from this Labour Jacinda Ardern - led Government that New Zealanders have not got confidence in. I say to the members on the other side of the House the Government members if you want to see an example of a crisis that hits quickly go back to the earthquake situation in my city of Christchurch. The earthquakes occurred from memory on a Saturday a Cabinet meeting on a Monday and a wage subsidy announced at the end of that Cabinet meeting. There wasn't time to put parameters around it. People were suddenly without regular wages. The Government needed to do something and it did something and it did something almost immediately. And then we had the Kaikōura earthquakes. Same response from the John Key - led Government. So the Government needs to look at some of these examples because they're relatively recent. The situation we have now is at least as critical to the New Zealand economy and it's time for a response. And if you think back to what happened last Monday after Cabinet the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance called a press conference to announce a package of support for business. And you know the essence of the announcement: we will call another press conference next Monday and then we'll give you details. Another week lost as businesses can't afford to hang around while the Government flounders and struggles to find a response. So I say to the Ministers sitting on the other side I say to aspiring Ministers sitting on the other side—well they haven't got much hope because we're nearly at election time. But I say to them "Don't be too proud to have a look at the way the John Key Government handled a crisis." because that's what New Zealanders want to see. They want to see a response. They don't want a press conference called with all the palaver of the press conference being called to be told "Wait another week for this announcement." I say to Grant Robertson that time is running out because I know of businesses that are struggling. I want to address my final minute to the fallacy that Grant Robertson continues to run—and he did it in his contribution to the House this afternoon in this debate—that the New Zealand economy is in good shape and it's resilient enough to withstand this crisis. The New Zealand economy was in good shape before the country elected a Labour - New Zealand First - Greens Government. But the opportunities given by that strong economy which this Government inherited have been completely squandered with the likes of the wasteful expenditure we heard about in the House today from the Hon Shane Jones and his provincial slush fund. The economy was not resilient. It is not in good shape. That's why there's an urgency for this Government to bring a package together as quickly as possible and if it doesn't happen by next Monday then it will be too late. New Zealand businesses are struggling. People will be unemployed shortly unless this Government responds.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call."