2. Economic Programme—Cost of Living Regional Fuel Tax and Rental CostsHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterEconomic Programme—Cost of Living Regional Fuel Tax and Rental Costs2. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her statements and policies?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes.Hon Simon Bridges: Is she concerned that her Government has implemented and proposed policies that will significantly increase the cost of living for hard-working New Zealanders and their families?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The basis of that question is unadulterated nonsense.Hon Simon Bridges: Well in light of that kind of answer is she aware that her Government's decision to increase fuel excise tax and create a new Auckland regional fuel tax will increase costs for an average family by up to $700 a year?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Again that is unadulterated rubbish. But more importantly in the read-out from the Speaker that was the Minister that was talking about extra roads all the way to Whangarei all the way from Hamilton from the Waikato. Mr Bridges if you're going to ask questions back it up with some consistency. Hon Simon Bridges: Is she really contesting that the regional fuel tax and the excise tax will increase costs in Auckland for families by hundreds and hundreds of dollars from 1 July?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I don't know about the Prime Minister but every sound economist is contesting what that member just said.SPEAKER: Order! I am going to ask the Deputy Prime Minister in answering for the Prime Minister to answer the question again in the Prime Minister's voice.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: On behalf of the Prime Minister not only am I contesting that but so is every sane sound economist. Hon Simon Bridges: How many more councils are now lining up for the regional fuel tax?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: This regional fuel tax from the Minister of Finance was for Auckland specifically—Hon Amy Adams: No no.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no—hang on. It was for Auckland specifically and we are waiting to see that unfold.Hon Grant Robertson: Can I ask the Prime Minister which would have the greatest effect: a regional fuel tax on Auckland or increasing GST across the board when you said you wouldn't do it? SPEAKER: Order! There's no responsibility for the second part of that question and it was also an invitation to the Prime Minister to make an out-of-order reply and I won't allow it. Hon Simon Bridges: Well in light of her answer to my very last supplementary question why then is her Government actually today legislating for the regional fuel tax to be able to be applied throughout any region in New Zealand—all regions in this country?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: First of all there is sound polling evidence that suggests that the people of Auckland understand that they need to pay for extra development. They're happy to pay for a fuel tax and those same people would prefer that immensely over whacking GST up having not promised it in the first place.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Perhaps the Deputy Prime Minister answering for the Prime Minister can't hear the question but it was around a clarification of his comment and a question about why there was now legislation that would enable the regional fuel tax across New Zealand not just Auckland. SPEAKER: I am going to ask the Prime Minister to answer it again but he was clarifying her comments—just to make it clear.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The members of the Opposition should full well know and their leaders should know that other councils cannot do this until 2021 so any statement of the kind that the Leader of the Opposition is making is demonstrably false. And I see Mr Ross telling him right now that he was wrong so get up and apologise. Hon Simon Bridges: Does she think her Government's policies such as banning foreign investment increasing compliance costs red tape and putting additional taxes on landlords will increase or decrease the cost of rents for New Zealanders?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The Prime Minister's concern and Cabinet's concern is the dysfunctionalism between supply and demand which grew massive under the former Government of the last nine years and we are setting out to correct it which will result in lower rents and lower house prices and indeed lower personal indebtedness.Hon Simon Bridges: So to confirm does the Prime Minister think rents are decreasing and will continue to decrease—is that what she's just told me?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The rate of rapid increase that was a past experience of New Zealanders is going to change and the affordability—the gap between people's annualised wages and the cost of housing—will get far closer than the 12 to 13 times that that member and his colleagues had left in this country. Hon Simon Bridges: Well has she seen reports by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment that show rent has increased by $23 a week since she's taken office?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No.Hon Simon Bridges: Well is she concerned by such reports of an increased cost for renters?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Again the Prime Minister has been—and so are all her colleagues—concerned about the appalling house price escalations in this country caused by the previous Government doing nothing about it and claiming that there was no crisis at all until the day after they failed to be in Government. Then all of a sudden a bit like Columbus discovered America they discovered it by accident.Hon Simon Bridges: Well will the brightline test ring-fencing losses the foreign investment ban and healthy homes legislation not have an effect on rents the way the pundits and the commentators all predict?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: These are marvellous policies designed to see decent construction in this country and designed to see the prices come down to make housing and rentals far more affordable. We do not want whole generations on the scrap heap where aspirational homeownership is concerned.Hon Simon Bridges: Has she seen reports by Otago University that the cost of a weekly supermarket shop has gone up by $21 a week under her Government?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No.Hon Simon Bridges: Has she seen reports in the New Zealand Herald this week that the cost of fruit and vegetables is set to rise because of higher fuel prices increases to the minimum wage and the increased cost of rent?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yes but some of those forecasts are not correct. Hon Simon Bridges: Is she concerned that GDP forecasts in Budget 2018 were revised down by an average of 0.5 percent per year over the next two years meaning $500 less in the back pocket of every single New Zealander?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No I'm just confirming that he would agree with me that it's poppycock.Hon Simon Bridges: Well what impact would lower GDP growth have on the ability of the average New Zealander to meet their daily living costs?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Could I just say we don't deal in hypotheticals; we deal in facts. And this Government is constructing a very sound growth plan for this country. It is a growth plan that sees a series of surpluses because we are a responsible Government. We believe in fiscal rectitude. We know that there may in the future come a rainy day and we won't be doing what that former Government did: borrow six times the debt that they inherited.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she expect GDP to be higher or lower than the already revised-down forecasts when the numbers are released this Thursday?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Could I just say it's axiomatic that GDP will be higher regardless of how he assembled that question.Hon Simon Bridges: Is it correct that her Government has cancelled $40 a week in tax cuts overseen $15 per week in extra fuel taxes $23 per week—SPEAKER: Order! That's about three questions now.Hon Gerry Brownlee: What about the list we got from Grant Robertson?SPEAKER: He's answering the question Mr Brownlee. There's a difference.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'll answer the first question by making it very clear on behalf of the Prime Minister that the so-called tax cuts which the Government inherited came with a massive infrastructural and social neglect cost.Hon Simon Bridges: Will the Prime Minister confirm in light of all of the questions she's answered today that in fact New Zealanders are around $108 a week worse off since her Government took office?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Definitely no and more importantly in a recent trust survey this Government went up dramatically from the lousy 48 percent we inherited to now 65 percent and possibly rising. That demonstrates that the public out there simply does not believe the Leader of the Opposition.