7. Question No. 7—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 7—Prime Minister7. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by her statement in relation to wage growth rising faster than inflation Of course it has with wage growth being at around 3.5 percent and inflation around 2 percent"; if so does she agree with Statistics New Zealand that inflation for the year to September 2021 was 4.9 percent and wage growth was only 2.4 percent?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes and yes.Nicole McKee: Does she accept that house prices have climbed by almost 30 percent in the past year and what impact is this having on the cost of living for New Zealanders?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes we acknowledge of course what we've seen as a result of decades of issues around the housing market where CoreLogic now are signalling a view that they believe we will start to see a change in the housing market with additional supply. Of course the pipeline is also likely to improve with the significant increase in consenting that we're seeing and at the same time we see the percentage of first-home buyers moving from 22 percent to 26 percent. We know that a number of issues have contributed to the housing crisis we've seen but our view is that by closing tax loopholes by continuing to tilt the playing field towards first-home buyers and away from investors through a considerable public housing build programme and through significant Resource Management Act reform we are pulling all of the levers available to us.Simon Court: Does she stand by Kris Faafoi's estimate in 2019 that the Government's fuel market reforms would reduce the price of petrol from between 18c to 32c a litre; and if so why are petrol prices now at record levels?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That's because we've seen global oil prices rise sharply from US$17.55 a barrel to now US$78.33 a barrel.Chris Baillie: Supplementary?SPEAKER: Chris Baillie. This is a test!Chris Baillie: Does she accept that skills shortages and therefore business costs could have been alleviated if the Government had allowed the same level of flexibility at the border for business as they did for The Wiggles?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Over 190000 individuals have entered into New Zealand since we have had border controls. Of course we all would have liked a scenario where we could have had the best of both worlds—a COVID-free environment and free flow at the border—but that has of course not been possible. We made a call that we would put in place measures to protect the community against COVID. That is what has led our economy to perform better than many others and of course now we're in the phase of carefully reopening our borders.Karen Chhour: Is she concerned that the Government just had a record tax take of $97 billion while families struggled to pay for groceries; if so does she intend to offer tax relief to Kiwi families?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member will be aware that we recently passed through this House adjustments to the family tax credit to ensure that families who are in receipt of Working for Families which represents a large number of middle and low income earners will see an increase in that tax credit. We see that as critical at this current time in our COVID recovery. That sits alongside the other measures that we have taken to the in-work tax credit to Government support to all make sure that we're doing what we can for low and middle income earners.David Seymour: If the Prime Minister agrees with Statistics New Zealand that prices are rising twice as fast as wages why did she tell the House it was the other way around yesterday and what does that lack of awareness say about her compassion for hard-working Kiwis squeezed from every direction right now?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Unfortunately it says that the member wasn't listening to either his own question at the time or indeed to my answer. The member asked me about a statement that was made by the Minister of Finance in May of this year and he asked about wage growth and inflation at that time. I replied "Of course it has with wage growth being at around 3.5 percent and inflation around 2 percent." And at that time the member made that statement that was Treasury's future forecasting. The member has subsequently presented statistics from September. So the reason I can respond yes to both is because May of course precedes September."