4. Question No. 4—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 4—Finance 4. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statements policies and actions in relation to the economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context that they were made delivered and taken. I particularly stand by a statement I've just made that the coalition Government's economic plan is delivering jobs and higher wages for New Zealanders following today's unemployment reading of 3.9 percent—an 11-year low.Hon Paul Goldsmith: How does he square today's household labour force survey figures with the 14000 increase in the number of Kiwis on the jobseeker benefit in the year to June?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That matter was traversed at some length and at some frustration of the Speaker in the House last week. What I would say is that it is only the member opposite who could find something negative about today's news. This is a story of more people in work. This is a story of lower unemployment. This is a story of higher wages. Today's the day for the member to find the glass half full.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he agree with the Newsroom columnist today who said unemployment has fallen mostly because more people gave up looking for work."?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Actually surprisingly enough no I don't. The people that I would agree with today are those of the likes of the ANZ who called this solid the ASB who said that the results radiate warmth throughout the economy and the Kiwibank economist who described the results as impressive. I would prefer to take their word on this.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is he already missing Amy Adams' insightful questions?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Mr Speaker I have—SPEAKER: Order! Order! Last warning.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why are more Kiwis going on the jobseeker benefit when employers are crying out for workers?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I said this was traversed at length in the House last week. As a percentage the figure remains relatively steady. On this side of the House we also want to make sure that people when they do have entitlements actually get them because that's what our system is about. But what the statistics today show is in those groups that are really hard to reach like those young people right around the country—Mr Jones' nephs and others—we are now making some excellent progress. This is a day to celebrate the fact that there are hard-working people all over New Zealand creating jobs and filling jobs. It is not a day for the "Brothers Grimm" over there.Hon Paul Goldsmith: What changes if any has he made to his Government's economic policies in response to the slowdown in economic growth?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: If the member had been paying attention at Budget time he would've seen a lift in operating spending from $2.4 billion per year to $3.8 billion per year. He would've seen $10 billion worth of capital expenditure going into building new schools in hospitals and improving our roads. On this side of the House we understand that it is the Government's role to stimulate the economy in times like this and unfortunately what we're having to do as part of that is make up for 10 years of under-investment. If the member wants to go back and look at the statistics for investment into infrastructure for example—capital expenditure—he'll find times in the 2010s when it barely moved. This Government's committed to a long-term investment in New Zealand.Hon Paul Goldsmith: If more infrastructure spending is an option will he revisit his Government's decision to stop or delay around a dozen major road projects that in several cases were ready to go in favour of new projects that won't be ready to go for years?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: We know that on this side of the House we will be investing more in transport infrastructure over the period of this—Hon Member: When?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: We've already started and we are making sure that that transport infrastructure doesn't go on a handful of highways but actually goes across the country on improving regional roads on significantly making safety improvements and on improving rail. On that side of the House there were a lot of promises made about those roads but they were well and truly ghost roads."