Little Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 08 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9421. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.Andrew Little: How can he have confidence in the Minister of Finance who had final authority over the unaffordable fit-out of the Ministry of Health and failed even to check the ministry’s balance sheet?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I have tremendous confidence in the Minister of Finance. I mean this is a Minister of Finance who has seen strong economic growth seen the books return to surplus and seen New Zealand growing and performing strongly on the world stage.Andrew Little: How can he have confidence in the Minister of Health when he covered up a “serious failure of financial management within the ministry” including keeping the Auditor-General in the dark doing his best not to leave any paper trail and hiding the cost from the public eye behind now a commercial lease?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I just utterly refute the assertions made by the member.Andrew Little: What reports if any has he received from the State Services Commission on the cover-up in the Ministry of Health after Treasury called the commission in to investigate?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I utterly refute the assertion the member is making.Andrew Little: How can he have confidence in the Minister for Economic Development who has made such a hash of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment amalgamation that his own staff have been underpaid for years?Mr SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked and will now be answered.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: As I noted to the House last week not only do I have tremendous confidence in the Minister for Economic Development I am very proud of the achievements that he has achieved. Just last week we saw the export numbers for New Zealand be positive by $1.9 billion despite the downturn in dairy. We are seeing growth for New Zealand right across the regions. I accept it has been a bit hard for some Government departments to actually follow the rules set by Labour in the Holidays Act but then actually members of the Labour caucus find it hard to follow the rules—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not think where the answer is heading is going to help.Andrew Little: Just what kind of shambolic Government is he running when public servants are not paid what they are owed and the Ministry of Health managed to hoodwink the entire Cabinet into believing it had $24 million that did not exist?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well 1 minute ago he was trying to say it was the Minister’s fault and now he is trying to say it is the Ministry of Health’s fault. My understanding is that the issue has been dealt with. There have been some personnel changes.Andrew Little: With underfunding of health already running at $1.7 billion just how is he going to pay for the latest bout of ministerial incompetence that is now costing taxpayers at least a million dollars a year extra in rack-rent for the Ministry of Health?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly the member is utterly wrong again about health: its funding is up over $4 billion in the time we have been in Government. But I would point out that the amount that is being paid in relation to the release at least for the fit-out of the Ministry of Health actually comes out of its departmental expenses and has been reduced from $230 million when we first became the Government to $190 million. Personnel numbers have reduced from 1500 people to 1100 people so as we can see we are running the department at an annual expenditure of $40 million less.