1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's policies and commitments?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Kia orana Mr Speaker and yes. While I know time will not allow me to list all of them I'd like to highlight just a few including the most significant investment we have seen in recent times into mental health rebuilding hospitals setting up our Cancer Control Agency; changes to make schooling more affordable and make school buildings more modern; cleaning up our rivers introducing the zero carbon Act; support provided to New Zealanders through the Families Package—which has contributed to child poverty improvements against seven of the nine indicators—building more public houses banning offshore speculators lifting the standards of rental homes; and of course our economic management which gave us low unemployment and low Government debt as a springboard to go hard to go early and to rebuild after COVID-19.Hon Judith Collins: Is it correct that her Government built just 101 houses compared to the 1000 houses originally promised by her and her then Minister of Housing the Hon Phil Twyford for the first year of the flagship KiwiBuild programme?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The most recent figures I have for KiwiBuild is that we have had 589 sold and 1051 currently under construction. I would say that is 589 more affordable homes that families are living in than that last Government created and a thousand more under construction than that last Government created. I would also add to that record that this Government is currently building more houses than any Government since the 1970s. Public housing places have increased by 5103 and we currently have 3000 public houses under construction. We stand proudly on our housing record.Hon Judith Collins: Well then is it correct that her Government built just 294 houses compared to the 5000 houses originally promised by her and her then Minister of Housing the Hon Phil Twyford for the second year of the flagship KiwiBuild programme?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I have already given the figures for KiwiBuild and the figures for the Government's building programme and both of those combined as much as the member may wish to critique our record stand far in advance of anything that the last Government did. These are numbers which reflect real houses not the mythical 30000 that apparently National built which would be closer to reflecting the number that was sold by the last Government. Hon Judith Collins: When her Government promised to build 16000 KiwiBuild homes in the first three years of the KiwiBuild programme then delivered only 452 houses as at 30 June 2020 was that a failure to deliver?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member may frame it like that but that is still more than that Government did in nine years—in nine years. So what that member is criticising us for still far outstrips anything that her Government did. In fact roughly 6000 houses sold stock reduced left us with a crisis in housing that we are still fixing.Hon Judith Collins: Well then why under her Government has the number of people waiting to go into a State house more than trebled from 5944 in September 2017 to a whopping 17982 as at May 2020?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Under this Government we reflect and take on board all need rather than changing the lists and cutting entire sections of the waiting list in order to engineer the numbers. Had that last Government under National built houses at the pace that we are currently we would not have a waiting list for housing.Hon Judith Collins: Is it correct that her Government's $400 million progressive homeownership scheme has helped not one single person buy a home to date?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We only recently announced the progressive homeownership scheme—again something that we have created and stand proudly on. Again I would point out to the member that she's choosing to critique a record that stands far in advance of anything that the last Government did. The largest Government building programme since the 1970s half a billion dollars into retrofitting State houses to make them healthy homes a support programme to sustain tenancy increases in the Housing First policy. Every single part of our programme far outstrips and seeks to remedy a crisis we inherited.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can I ask the Prime Minister as to whether her Government has sold social housing or built them?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I've said the fact that we hold the status of having built more than any Government since the 1970s and the member is right to reflect that the last Government shed stock—up to 6000 worth of homes were gotten rid of under that last Government—whereas we have built the housing stock we so desperately need.Hon Judith Collins: Is it a failure to deliver for her to promise to build a strong economy when economic growth under her Government and before COVID-19 had already halved?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I am happy to reflect on that record because pre-COVID our GDP growth averaged 2.3 percent where it was 2.1 percent under National. Unemployment was 4 percent whereas it was 4.7 when we took office and we've had the highest private sector wage growth in a decade. I stand proudly on this Government's economic record including paying down our debt to put us into a position to weather the storm of COVID relative to what we inherited.Hon Dr Megan Woods: Does the Prime Minister think it is a success story that we will have the first family moving into a home purchased under the progressive homeownership scheme in November of this year?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes because as I said—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order!Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: —it sits alongside sustaining tenants—SPEAKER: No Prime Minister sit down. I know it's the last week and it's sometimes a bit like school in the last week and there's a tendency for discipline to get slack. But we're not having members shouted down when they're attempting to answer questions.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes and that policy sits alongside Housing First sustaining tenancies our increase in transitional housing and of course our significant Government building programme where we added another 8000 public houses just recently as part of our COVID response recovery and rebuild.Hon Judith Collins: Is it correct that of the $455 million allocated for mental health in Budget 2019 her Government spent only around half of what was allocated for year one and that the number of front-line mental health sites is behind her Government's target?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If the member actually read the announcements at the time she'd recognise that we have to rebuild our mental health workforce. At the time we announced it we anticipated for the 2019 and 2020 year an early $40 million worth of investment. I can report that at this point $120 million has been distributed. We are having to train a workforce and build front-line mental health services as we go but we've always known that.Hon Judith Collins: Why is her Government's billion trees programme only planting trees at half the rate it should to reach its own target?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We consider ourselves to be on track with the billion trees programme. My memory if it serves is roughly 149 million trees. And of course we expect it to continue to scale up. I would point out to the House that all of these initiatives all of the progress and environmental challenges on climate change on mental health and on housing are more than that Government ever even thought about putting out or even delivering a press statement on because they did nothing in any of those areas.Hon Judith Collins: Does she stand by her commitment to provide university students with free fees when the total number of equivalent full-time domestic students in public tertiary education and training dropped by over 2000 in 2018?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: When you have a tight labour market and jobs aplenty that is what happens. Again we've delivered the first year free and we've also made sure that those who'll be seeking apprenticeships or vocational training in high-need areas are supported to complete that for free as well. We stand by our investment in skills. Hon Judith Collins: Why did her Government not proceed with light rail in Auckland when it promised to?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Because the coalition Government could not agree on a policy there. But again there have been plenty of other transport initiatives including plugging the $6 billion gap that Simon Bridges left for the Auckland Transport Alignment Project.Hon Judith Collins: Is she satisfied that rapid transit solutions in Auckland have stalled over the last three years while her Government struggled to agree on a light rail project?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No. Interesting the member would characterise it in that way when that's not something that her Government at that time or her party has supported. But we have of course seen progress on the Eastern Busway State Highway 20B the Old Māngere Bridge replacement project ongoing work on the City Rail Link the Karangahape Road cycleway and the Constellation bus station to name a few in Auckland alone.Hon Judith Collins: Is promising to build light rail from Auckland CBD to Mount Roskill and then not even starting it a failure to deliver?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: It's actually called democracy. [Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order! If the members want their leader to have another question they will be quiet.Hon Judith Collins: When will light rail from the Auckland CBD to Mount Roskill be completed?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm intrigued the member's taken an interest given she apparently doesn't support it. But thank you for joining and agreeing with us that rapid transit and public transport in Auckland are necessary. We have sent it back to the Ministry of Transport and we expect that whoever has the privilege of forming the next Government will be reporting directly to them with further proposals for rapid transit from the city centre to the airport.