1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes particularly the Government's work to prevent COVID-19. Going hard and early has put us in a good position. Many countries have not had the chance that we have had have faced thousands of deaths and economies grinding to a halt regardless—these were the projections that we saw here too. Right now we need to hold on to our hard-won gains and not allow the virus to bounce back. The next phase will be keeping on top of the virus as we start opening up economic activity. We need to continue our collective approach to make sure we stay safe save lives and save livelihoods.Hon Simon Bridges: Will the Prime Minister assure New Zealanders that we will come out of level 3 in two weeks so that many more tens of thousands of Kiwis will be able to go back to work?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That is our aspiration but whether or not we succeed is actually not in the hands of anyone in this House but actually in the hands of our team of almost 5 million. It will be a collective job. If we stick to the rules we manage to keep away community transmission and stay in control of the virus then our ambition is of course to move to level 2.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she accept we can keep New Zealanders safe as well as get many more tens of thousands back into work than is currently the case at level 3?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course at level 3 we get up into a position where we have economic activity at around 75 percent—so there is a significant return. What we need to of course weigh that up against are some of those areas of work such as beauty therapy or those that require close contact. At level 3 we are still trying to reduce that contact while we're really in a waiting room to really ensure that we don't have an up-tick in the virus and that we don't put ourselves in a position where we yo-yo between levels. We want to get down further through the alert levels so that more economic activity can take place and so we don't end up back in lockdown.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she accept the urgency for businesses and jobs such as the 10 percent of workers in retail of getting out of level 3?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I absolutely do. I heard the member reference in his speech making sure that we hear New Zealanders. We may not have been able to have face-to-face discussions with those operators and retailers but we have been acutely aware of their needs and their desire to get back into a position where they're trading face to face again because online offerings I know will never be a supplement for many people's current way of operating. So that is our ambition. Equally the Treasury modelling will show as well that we will be better off in the long run if we can get out and stay out of these more restrictive levels. That is our goal—and that is our goal so that we can continue for instance as Mr Seymour pointed out getting to a position where eventually we have large-scale events again because those industries are severely impacted by where we are right now and even where we'll be at level 2.Hon Simon Bridges: Is she aware how many more New Zealanders are going on to the jobseeker benefit—or the dole—each week at the moment?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course we are releasing more frequent information. The last detail that I saw had an extra from memory about 7000 people going on to jobseeker. At the moment job seekers as a percentage of the working-age population represent about 5.8 percent—that is just a touch above what we saw at the global financial crisis (GFC). We have always indicated as have commentators around the world the impacts on employment here are likely to be worse than the GFC and significantly so. Our job is to make sure we connect people keep them connected to work and get them back into work as quickly as possible. On that note can I add that we've had over 2000 people this month come off jobseeker and into work. So even in lockdown work has been under way by the Ministry of Social Development to redeploy people to those areas of essential work—food production and processing—to keep people connected to the workforce.Hon Simon Bridges: Will the Prime Minister assure New Zealanders regarding the Government's COVID-19 economic recovery that her way out will not include raising taxes or creating new ones?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I've been asked that before and have already said that. In fact if you'll see from our initiatives so far we've actually been providing tax relief. The first business tax package had tax deductions for assets that for instance are often used to enable people to work from home. We raised the provisional tax threshold. We wrote off late tax penalties. We allowed building depreciation. We've added to that a second package worth $3.2 billion including tax loss carry-back tax loss continuity support and of course that sat alongside services like business consultancy services to make sure people are accessing all of those packages.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she accept for businesses while the wage subsidy has been a welcome lifeline they are still struggling to pay all of their costs like rent and rates that tens of thousands will go out of business and fire many tens of thousands of Kiwi workers before Budget 2020 if they don't receive more Government support urgently?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The first thing I'll say is we've never waited for the Budget in order to move quickly to support business and that's why you've seen a significant investment already to try and respond to need as we've seen it. The more than $10 billion wage subsidy scheme I do want to point out unlike other economies—like for instance Australia—we got that out the door within days; Australia is not yet paying their wage supplement. And so that's been incredibly important. The second difference: we have paid that out in bulk so that was a 12-week payment that came right up front to support businesses; that has given them the flexibility to manage their needs with the only proviso that people keep connected to the workforce and that they keep paying people's wages. We did look at that other significant fixed cost for many businesses which will be their rental cost their lease arrangements; there we made proviso for their arrears to be able to accumulate for a longer period before they're able to be terminated. There were limitations on what we were able to do in that area though. Finally things like tax loss carry-back is a significant initiative in order to help with cash-flow issues for businesses as well. But we've never ruled out continuing our supplementary support and that's what we've done all the way through.David Seymour: Can the Minister confirm for business owners that there will not be relief for commercial leases?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We looked at all the options and we had limitations there on what we were able to do that did not exist for residential tenancy. But even if we can't do things that are directly attributable only to the fixed costs of commercial leases what we have tried to do is deal with cash-flow issues through for instance the tax system or through wage subsidies to try and help in other ways.Hon Simon Bridges: In light of those answers can we expect more cash support whether for rent or rates or otherwise for businesses—particularly small businesses—imminently?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We've always said we want to keep assessing the situation for our businesses. What we have looked at is rather than some of the more generic support mechanisms and packages like wage subsidies whether or not now is the time to look at more targeted offerings. I am very aware that for instance tourism—those who work in large events are going to be specifically affected for a longer period of time. So that's work that the Government continues to do.Hon Simon Bridges: Is Phil Twyford's warning to councils last week that they must not provide relief to ratepayers on rates in fact Government policy?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I haven't read those explicit comments. What I will say generally though is of course councils have the issue that Government has at the moment where revenue streams for council have been impacted by COVID-19 but they have continuing ongoing costs. What I hope is that central government and local government will continue to work together to make sure that we have the stimulus we need in our economy to continue to create jobs—and local government has a role to play in that as well. At the same time I think we're all agreed we want to lessen the burden of cost on our ratepayers and taxpayers at present because this is a time where people are facing considerable potential costs particularly if they've lost their jobs.Hon Simon Bridges: Was Phil Twyford right—as reported in Stuff I think last week—to tell council leaders that any move by councils to trim rates will impact the Government's ability—or willingness—to invest in any proposed partnerships."?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I'd rather see the full context of Minister Twyford's statement. But also what I would point out is that there are a number of services and ongoing projects that councils of course are obliged to continue to deliver. But those are ultimately matters for them."