Foss Craig: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Foss Craig: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 20 October 2009. Volume:658;Page:7306. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
1. 
Hon CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: What have been the Government’s priorities to ensure New Zealand comes out of recession and achieves sustainable medium to long term growth? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Our priorities through the recession have been to keep the economy ticking over and to protect the vulnerable. At the same time we have set out a long-term plan to lift New Zealand’s economic performance. In the last year we have delivered on the Government’s election commitments removed the sharpest edges of recession clawed back rising debt to manageable levels and stabilised New Zealand’s credit rating. 
Craig Foss 
: What specific measures has the Government taken to achieve its priorities? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: There has been a wide range of measures but I will reflect on just some of them: securing the stability of the financial system; supporting thousands of jobs through a number of initiatives including Youth Opportunities the Job Support Scheme and ReStart; delivering a billion dollars of tax cuts; a large insulation fund; a programme to invest $7.5 billion in infrastructure; and an extensive programme of deregulation of business. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: How can that Minister claim that the New Zealand economy will be better off when the Government’s response to the recession of cancelling superannuation fund contributions and providing billions of dollars of subsidies to polluters has been to steal from our children? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The only plans I have heard for stealing from our children are extravagant promises from Labour to borrow $6 billion more. 
Craig Foss 
: What fiscal issues did the Government inherit? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The first and most obvious one for the Government was when we discovered that over the next 3 years there would be a billion-dollar shortfall in accident compensation funding and that the Government would have to pay a billion dollars into the non-earners account to fill the gap. We also inherited Government spending growing at 50 percent over the past 5 years which means that we now have to borrow $250 million a week to fill the gap. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: How does that compare with the zero net debt and gross debt at half the level that his Government inherited from Labour—compared with what we inherited from the previous National Government—and with the $30 billion - odd of funds that our children will have to find for superannuation added to the $30 billion to fund the climate liabilities that Gerry Brownlee wants to give to polluters? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The member may not realise that if we borrow more money now that means our children will have to repay it and if we borrow money to put into the Superannuation Fund our children will have to repay the borrowings. 
Rahui Katene 
: Does he agree with Dr Susan St John that the intended in-work tax credit reduces poverty selectively and punishes families in a recession and how will those children who have been consigned to live in severe and significant hardship be supported out of poverty? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I understand that Dr Susan St John has a strong view about the in-work tax credit and that it has been a matter of some litigation between the Crown and the Child Poverty Action Group. We are following with interest both the debate about its effectiveness and the legal proceedings. 
Rahui Katene 
: What is the Government doing to respond to the outcomes from the hui held 2 weeks ago at Manurewa Marae to end child poverty in Aotearoa? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Our first step has been that in the midst of a sharp recession the Government has maintained all entitlements in order to ensure that people have a sense of security and to ensure that our most vulnerable are not those who are punished first by an economic shock.