Robertson GrantSecond ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the Imprest Supply (Third for 2019/2020) Bill be now read a second time. This Government made a decision at the outset to go hard and to go early in the fight against COVID-19. We said we would do everything that it takes to protect New Zealanders' health and support everybody through this crisis. Our job as a Government is also to cushion the blow for workers businesses and the economy through this and to position our economy and our society to be in the best position to recover on the other side. I recognise that this is no ordinary imprest supply bill. At $40 billion of operating expenditure and $12 billion of capital this is a large authority to spend. It should be remembered that this is in fact a technical exercise to ensure that the money is available. All expenditure will still be subject to further appropriation. But the scale of the spending is the price that we have to pay. It's the price of making sure our public health system can operate and support New Zealanders. It's the price of people keeping their jobs and keeping their homes. It's the price of cushioning the blow to businesses and of keeping them afloat and it's the price of making sure that the core of an economy exists that we can build on to recover in the way that New Zealanders want us to do. The bill will not only approve the funding needed for the Government's significant actions to date in New Zealand's fight against COVID-19 but also provides for further substantial action as necessary. The actions we have taken so far have been significant indeed. Overall the Government has already announced more than $20 billion of initiatives to cushion the blow of COVID-19 on Kiwis' health jobs businesses and the economy. It is hard to believe that it is only just over a week since I stood in this House and talked about our $12.1 billion package. As part of that package we provided an initial first addition of $500 million to support the public health response to the COVID-19 outbreak. We are already seeing the impact of those resources in building up our public health units in the arrival of emergency testing centres in the initial intensive care capacity that we've grown in the provision of equipment for hospitals and in the support for GPs and primary care along with significant additional video conferencing and telehealth consultations and the significant increase in capacity for Healthline. All of the support for hospitals and community providers to deal with the surge of patients and support for advice for people caring at home—all of it—is only the beginning when it comes to what we need to do to support our health service. I want to take this opportunity to again pay tribute to every single health worker in New Zealand. As they go into this next four weeks their lives will be quite different from our lives and we need to think about that and thank them for that every single day. Over and above our increased support for the health system we are providing significant support to New Zealand's jobs and incomes through this difficult period. We introduced a relief payment to incentivise self-isolation and protect those who were infected by COVID-19. We put in place the wage subsidy scheme that is available to all New Zealand businesses sole traders and the self-employed and that is an important point when we look to other countries in the world who have not done that for the self-employed and sole traders and they are many of the people who have taken up the scheme. Registered charities NGOs incorporated societies and post-settlement governance entities are all included in the scheme. I hear the words of the Leader of the Opposition. We must continue to look at that scheme and ensure it remains appropriate to support New Zealanders as we move through the next few weeks. Alongside protecting Kiwis' jobs we've also announced alongside retail banks and the Reserve Bank a six-month mortgage holiday for people whose incomes have been affected by COVID-19. This will mean people do not lose their homes as a result of COVID-19. It does mean they'll have to still pay their mortgage; it's just the payments are being deferred for now. I do ask today those who are in receipt of the deferred mortgage payment to think if they are landlords about those who pay rent in their homes and ensure that we are genuinely all in this together.We have recognised that some of our most vulnerable will require further support and protection through this difficult period. That's why we permanently increased main benefits by $25 per week and doubled the amount paid through the winter energy payment for 2020 and are removing the hours test for the in-work tax credit. Today this Parliament will also consider freezing all rent increases and extending no-cause terminations for tenancies. These measures are essential to support the most at risk to support them to pay for their accommodation and their food and keep them warm over the coming weeks and months. Our response is also helping to cushion the blow of the global COVID-19 pandemic for businesses. Yesterday I announced that the Government and retail banks are implementing a $6.25 billion business finance guarantee scheme for small and medium sized businesses. This is leveraging the Government's financial strength to allow banks to provide short-term credit to cushion the financial distress on solvent small and medium sized firms affected by the crisis. We've also introduced a raft of tax changes to help increase businesses' cash flows including the reinstatement of depreciation deductions for commercial buildings increasing the threshold for provisional tax increasing the threshold for writing off low-value assets and giving time-limited discretion to Inland Revenue to remit the interest on tax debt if a taxpayer is unable to pay on time due to the impacts of COVID-19. It's important to remember all of these measures today. So much has happened in the last week. I encourage businesses to look at the full package of measures that are available to them to support them to continue and to support them to keep workers employed. These measures—keeping people connected to their jobs; supporting businesses to stay open even if their place of work is closed; and making sure mortgage repayments can be suspended so people can stay in their homes—are all steps to ensure we are positioned for a recovery. I do say to all businesses today: do not lay off your staff if you can avoid it. Make contact with the Ministry of Social Development. Ensure that you and your people are able to come back from this. The Government is throwing everything we can at keeping the economy afloat and we ask businesses to play their part to support workers in this extraordinary period of time of need. This bill will approve capacity for $52 billion of spending on our immediate COVID-19 response. This is essentially an emergency backstop not a prediction of exactly how much will be spent but it does demonstrate the level of commitment of this House and this Government to fighting the virus and protecting New Zealand from it. The money we set aside and spend on the response to this pandemic cannot just be looked at in terms of dollars and cents. The price we would pay as a country for not acting for not putting aside this money is absolutely unthinkable. It is prudent to provision for a wide range of potential scenarios now so that we can continue to respond swiftly and decisively to this rapidly changing situation. I've been asked quite a bit in the last few days: can New Zealand afford this? Of course we can and we certainly can't afford not to do it. But here I paid tribute to Bill English and Sir Michael Cullen in particular as finance Ministers who ensured that we were ready for the rainy day. It's arrived it's pouring ladies and gentlemen and we need to make sure we build off the benefits of that disciplined work that came before us and indeed that of this Government during our two years. This won't be easy and it won't be fast but New Zealand will get through it. As I've said previously I take my lessons from Governments like the first Labour Government who responded in a time of crisis with investment pragmatism optimism and kindness. I've said before that this bill is the price of supporting our people and our economy. It's also the sign of a decent society. It's a sign of the importance of strong and compassionate Government and the power of the State and our collective will to do good. It's a promissory note this bill to the people of New Zealand about the importance of looking out for each other.