Bishop Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 23 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4611. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.CHRIS BISHOP (National)to the Minister of Finance: What progress is the Government making in helping reduce New Zealand’s external debt position?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance):The latest current account data issued by Statistics New Zealand shows New Zealand is making some good progress in reducing its external debt. Net external debt fell to 58 percent of GDP in March. This is the lowest level since 2003. It is helped by the Government getting on top of its spending but households are making a positive contribution. In fact households had positive savings for the last 5 years and this has not happened since the early 1990s. Before 2010 household savings had been negative in all but one year since 1995.Chris Bishop: How is the savings behaviour of households contributing to New Zealand’s improving overall debt position?Hon BILL ENGLISH: If you look at the total numbers for household savings these have totalled $11.6 billion over the last 5 years. In the previous 5 years there was $15.5 billion of net borrowing rather than $11.6 billion of net saving. Of course a growing economy helps because it supports more jobs and higher incomes. In the past year 74000 more jobs have been created and average annual wages have increased by $5700 in the last 4 years. The economic confidence and the higher incomes assist households to save more.Chris Bishop: What steps is the Government taking to reduce Crown debt?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Households have been doing their bit by saving more and borrowing less and the Government is focusing on borrowing less. We are focused on getting Government spending under control. Core Crown expenses have fallen from 34 percent of GDP in 2008-09 to 30 percent next year. The Government has achieved this by focusing on controlling expenditure with around a billion of new money per year. However we will need to stick to this kind of fiscal discipline in order to generate the surpluses required to start repaying debt in the way that many households have been repaying debt.Chris Bishop: What recent reports has he received on the Government’s expenses and revenue?Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the interests of transparent Government the Government publishes monthly accounts and those for the 10 months to 30 April show a turn-round from $450 million—around a billion better than forecast in the Budget just a few weeks beforehand. This shows that the Government monthly accounts fluctuate but it looks slightly more likely we could get to surplus for the 2014-15 year.Grant Robertson: Can he confirm that when he took office in 2008 he said that New Zealand was “in a reasonable position regarding debt” and that since then net debt has risen to over $60 billion?Hon BILL ENGLISH: One of the things the Labour finance spokesman needs to get up to date with is the global financial crisis. I know that at the time he was the tertiary education spokesman but that does not mean it did not happen and it is one of the reasons alongside the Christchurch earthquake for the growth in Government debt over that time.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. There were actually a couple of questions there—Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the member is arguing they were not addressed in the final stages in my opinion they were. It did take some time but they were addressed. Certainly one was and that is all that is required.Grant Robertson: Do the Budget documents that he released earlier in May say that net debt will not be reduced in nominal terms until the 2019 fiscal year?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I would have to go back and check as you would expect. But the member would be correct if he was saying that the Government cannot actually repay nominal debt until it has sufficient cash surpluses as opposed to accounting surpluses and that is quite a challenge. That is why I look to the member’s continued support for the Government’s policy of fiscal restraint and effective Government spending.