Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. The National Party stands to support this bill and the efforts of the Government to try and respond to this unprecedented challenge to our way of life and our health and our ability to earn a living and look after ourselves and our families. Many of us are looking forward to some quality family time over the next few weeks and many households are figuring out how to manage that while parents work from home. Of course many people aren't able to work because their jobs have gone and they're dealing with that very very difficult set of circumstances and we are also conscious of the many essential workers the health workers many in my family out working hard very hard at the moment in stressful and trying times—also supermarket workers many who are increasing their own personal risk so that New Zealanders have access to food and necessities. So we're very conscious of all that effort right across the country and the fact that we're all doing our very best to get through this difficult situation the best we can. So when we look at this piece of legislation of course it's about the massive economic cost of this exercise: $52 billion which is about 17 percent of GDP—as it was before the crisis; it might be a higher percentage now who knows? So it does amount to the biggest blank cheque in the history of the country and we give it to the Minister of Finance in the hope and aspiration that he won't need to spend all of it. He may or he may not but we obviously back him in his wise decision-making about how that money is spent bearing in mind that it will have an impact on generations to come in terms of the impact it will have on our economy.So look the health response I won't go into in great detail but fundamentally if it's a choice between half measures and a very lengthy disruption for our country and our way of life and more severe measures leading to a better health outcome and a shorter disruption and quicker restoration then I think we all agree that the latter is preferable. And assuming that is the broad strategy of this Government it makes sense. So we've gone for a lockdown and obviously I'd echo the messages of many speakers before and no doubt after that as New Zealanders we all need to work together to ensure that that lockdown is as effective as it can be so that we can deal with this virus as quickly as we can and go back to our lives.There are many challenges around being as effective as we can in the health response ensuring that we continue to test as quickly as we can get a real sense of how big the issue is and get on top of it. The biggest economic priority is to reduce the damage as much as possible the long-term damage. So that's going to be very very challenging particularly in the tourism and travel sector where we would expect that we'll have massive disruption for quite a long time. It won't be instantaneous that it comes back whenever the actual virus pandemic is over. That particular part of the economy is dealing with large-scale layoffs right now and it's a very difficult time and our hearts and our minds are with those many people.For the rest of the economy fundamentally it's about ensuring that as many businesses and firms can survive and keeping as many people employed or connected with those businesses as possible so that we can rebuild afterwards. Like most other MPs I'm sure we've all been in conversation over the last few days with business people and owners. I won't forget the bewildered look in their eyes when I was in a business a couple of days ago saying Well I might not see you for a few months." and they said "Well if that's the case you will never see me because this business won't survive more than a month." This is something that that person has spent their lifetime building up—30 years building up a business and to see it just disappear is a bewildering thing for many people. That's why we have to think as carefully as we can to ensure that those things that people have spent their lives building up—that we give them the best opportunity to survive through this period and to come back to life when things return to normal. So that's why we have supported the wage subsidy scheme. That's why we asked last week that it be broader and more generous above that $150000 cap and I'm very glad that the Government moved to do that. And I'd echo the thoughts of Simon Bridges to say you know we need to keep monitoring that very closely because it certainly is working effectively and the money is getting out very quickly to some businesses particularly smaller businesses to get them through. Some of the larger businesses it may not work well for them and if we do see significant layoffs in the next week or few days we may have to ask ourselves whether that needs adjustment. The New Zealand Initiative for one group have been advocating a move to a similar scheme to the UK's and Germany's whereby more businesses are effectively mothballed and employees are put on furlough and a proportion of their wages up to a limit are covered. You know that is eye-wateringly expensive and you couldn't do that for a long period of time but it's something that we may have to consider if we find the subsidy scheme isn't achieving what it set out to achieve. So that's something that I just encourage the Government to keep flexible about over the next little while and we would be supportive of any changes in that direction if required. The other bank guarantees for new lending I think is a sensible way to do it. Sharing the risk with the banks so the Government is taking on some risk but the banks are also having some direct risk some skin in the game is the best way. They know the businesses best. They understand what the issues are and what was a fundamentally sound business before the epidemic and what can survive afterwards. I do think it's also worth considering ramping up the access to professional advice to businesses. It would have to be over the phone of course but through the chambers of commerce and things like that there are other things that could be done. The other point I'd make is that I do think it's important to encourage the Government to ensure that they have a general broad stream of economic advice coming through to them. The Government's not called on us directly for that and that's fine but I would encourage them to continue to talk right across the sector in the economy. I understand they've been doing that through Business New Zealand and the New Zealand Initiative and presumably the Prime Minister's business advisory group. I just encourage them to push that further and make sure that they reach out as far as they can making use of the full capability that we have in this country.I presume the message has been sent out and you know requests for proposals have been sent out to New Zealand businesses to produce protective gear or equipment or respirators or anything that we are short of across the economy. I haven't seen evidence of it but I certainly encourage the Government to be making sure that we use the full capacity of New Zealand's ingenuity to get things in line and also to clear away regulatory barriers to getting on with stuff. We've got difficulty around directors' liability around trading insolvently or reckless trading. In these things you have to have an element of pragmatism there through the regulators; likewise with responsible lending codes for banks and so forth. If you're trying to encourage banks to lend out you've got to be careful about how that works in practice.Now the other point I'd make is that while this Government needs to make decisions day by day—big decisions around shutting down parts of the economy—on the fly and we all understand the need for the urgency I do make the point that as soon as we can we need to start seeing the Government's assumptions its plan its framework so that we can understand broadly what the plan is and how they will make decisions to open up as much of the economy back as quickly as we can as quickly as we safely can down the line. In a month's time how will we balance the risks of further spread of the virus versus the risks of economic collapse—how we'll make those judgments. We're not quite there yet but we can start shaping that discussion better and sending some signals about how the Government will make those decisions which I think is important for the overall confidence and the ability of businesses and employers and jobs to survive so that we can come through.And finally I also think we should take the long view as well when we do rebuild this economy. What do we do to ensure that when we come out of this we can come out stronger? Firstly that's about obviously saving as many firms as we can and jobs as we can. But we also need to be thinking about getting shovel-ready projects for infrastructure under way now and we'd support doing that quickly not in six months' time or a year's time but you know as quickly as possible—our digital infrastructure just as much as our physical infrastructure—and also getting on with the growth plan for the economy when we come out in the end. So all in all it's an extraordinary piece of legislation that we're talking about here and eye-watering figures which New Zealanders can pay because of the careful stewardship of previous Governments both Labour and National and we wish the Government all its wisdom over the next few weeks as it makes decisions that impact upon New Zealanders' lives and their ability to work and provide for themselves and their families over the weeks to come. Thank you Mr Speaker."