Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. The National Party shares the Government's concern about the economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. Already these have been significant for the businesses affected. People have lost their jobs they've had their hours reduced they've lost income and they've closed their restaurants without knowing when they'll open again. Some struggling businesses will fall over and there's no longer a sense that the impact will be short and sharp but only a question of how damaging it will be and we have seen today that the latest business confidence figures are at their lowest levels since 2009. We support the initiatives announced so far. We support the tourism and seafood industries and faster payments from Government departments. We support the efforts of IRD and the Ministry of Social Development to help with provisional tax adjustments and late payments we agree that businesses in distress should be talking with their banks and we acknowledge that the Government is putting together its business continuity package including a targeted wage subsidy scheme for workers in the most adversely affected areas and industries. We were disappointed that the details weren't available yesterday. This has been going on for several weeks now and it's our belief more urgency is required. Yes it's complicated and yes the boundaries have to be clearly defined but we worry that the window to save jobs may be beginning to close. We also ask the Government to reconsider its plan to lift the minimum wage again on 1 April. The Government announced several very substantial increases to the minimum wage back in 2017 when the economy was growing strongly—a 27 percent increase over three years. The situation has changed dramatically since then in the past few months. The April change will mean the minimum wage has lifted 20 percent in two years.It doesn't make sense to be proposing relief to businesses at the same time as significantly adding to their costs. Saving jobs should be the focus. The economic challenge before us is serious. The Government needs to shift its mind-set from adding costs to business to taking pressure off small and medium sized enterprises so that they can survive and continue to employ New Zealanders. So I urge the Minister to reconsider and postpone the 1 April rise for six months while we assess the situation. Nobody knows how widespread and deep the international slow-down will be. We need to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.Thanks to the discipline of successive Governments the country has relatively low debt and the ability to provide stimulus if required. The ability to borrow however should not stop the Minister from taking a hard look at wasteful spending such as with elements of the Provincial Growth Fund. Some of the money would be far better used in a business continuity package than it is being used now.We also need to recognise the longer-term economic challenges haven't gone away. The Minister is wrong when he says that New Zealand entered this crisis with strong momentum. That's not correct. The latest estimate from the Reserve Bank is that New Zealand grew at 1.6 percent in 2019. So a clear coherent growth plan is outlined. We believe it should include tax relief a substantial infrastructure plan that is delivered relief for small businesses regulatory reduction such as we outlined yesterday and policies focused on putting more money in the hands of New Zealand families.Finally we thank the Minister for his offer of briefings from Treasury and we undertake to work constructively to suggest ways forward as we confront this economic challenge together.