3. Question No. 3—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 3—Finance3. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all of his statements and actions?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context in which they were made and undertaken.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Regarding his statement last week that it is far from business as usual" will his Budget reprioritise spending from nice-to-have projects to saving jobs?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I am always focused on saving jobs creating jobs and creating decent work with good pay for all New Zealanders.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he stand by his statement on 25 March that measures including the $6.25 billion business finance guarantee scheme show that business and workers "we have your backs"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I think the full range of initiatives that the Government has brought in over the last six or seven weeks are doing exactly that. In terms of the business finance guarantee scheme the member will be aware we've made some changes to that scheme and I continue to consider what other changes we can make to ensure it operates well. I would also add that since that scheme was put in place we of course have also put in place the small business loan guarantee scheme.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he accept that the Government-backed loan scheme that he announced on 24 March has failed given the scheme has only so far lent 0.37 percent of what it was supposed to have lent?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I don't think that at any point we thought it would be $6.25 billion in the first few weeks of operation so I don't accept that overall premise of the member's question but I do accept—as I've said publicly—that that scheme needed to be changed from its initial design. We've done that and I continue to look at further possible changes.David Seymour: Did he ever think it would only be $27 million in the first few weeks of operation?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I think we have to put that in the context of the overall amount of lending that banks have done in this period: around $5 billion worth of additional support that they have provided. As I said the scheme has been tweaked. I'm considering further tweaks and obviously—as of today in fact—applications are open for the small business loan guarantee scheme which we announced subsequent to that scheme.David Seymour: What was the point of the scheme if banks were going to lend anyway as the Minister just said?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The point was to ensure that banks didn't just lend to the customers that they were 100 percent comfortable with. We wanted to make sure that medium-sized businesses in particular had an avenue to go there that's why we guaranteed it at 80 percent of those loans. I've been very public about the fact that there have been some examples presented to me where I haven't thought that the scheme was operating the way that it should. We're continuing to work with banks on that. And I also would pick up the words of the Bankers' Association about the point at which that particular scheme may become more useful as people are more certain now that we've moved into level 2.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Has any cash been given back to businesses under the Government's loss carry-back scheme that was announced two weeks ago?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I believe the Prime Minister addressed this matter in her press conference today actually. I think somewhere in the region of $60-odd million has and I expect that to grow considerably.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Can he assure New Zealanders that programmes funded by the Budget will deliver more than that $6 billion business finance guarantee scheme?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I think the member needs to look at the full range of support that the Government has delivered including the wage subsidy scheme which has delivered $10.7 billion. All of the suite of measures that we've announced are important and useful and yes the Budget will also contain ones that are important and useful."