Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Well thank you Mr Speaker and I echo the comments of the Prime Minister in terms of the strength of this country during difficult times. We do look out for each other and are conscious of the strength of our communities and our families and we'll work together to get through what is definitely going to be a difficult period over the next few months. We are facing one of the greatest health and economic challenges we have had in recent times.We have all throughout this House no doubt spent the weekend hearing messages from individuals concerned about their health about their kids about going to school about getting the virus and the implications of that. We've also heard many many stories from people in business worried desperately about their businesses. I've spoken to a number who are employing over 100 people and looking at massive job cuts over the next few weeks and they're desperately worried: desperately worried about their businesses but desperately worried about their employees the people that they have worked with over many years to build up businesses. It's a big family in those circumstances and they're desperately worried about them.So we acknowledge this package in so far as it concentrates on wage subsidies in order to keep those businesses going. We do make the point that about half of the $12 billion is focused in that area and our fundamental view is that actually we should be doing more at that end of the spectrum now. We started off talking about how the package should be swift substantial and effective and what we're seeing here at the moment is that about half of it is swift. We think more of it should have been swift and more of it should have been getting into the hands of those businesses right now.Now the best response of all is the health response. That is to make sure that this health crisis that is binding up the whole of the economy has as short a duration as possible. So we have said a number of times—we've encouraged this Government—to be faster and more responsive in the health space. We've heard the Prime Minister saying we've got the toughest border restrictions in the world and that just doesn't mesh with people's experience. Everybody's heard of people arriving in the last day or two coming straight out of the airport getting a pamphlet and going on their way. So our strong encouragement is to keep absolutely focused on tracing people as they come in and getting that message through and more rigour at the border to ensure that people aren't coming through who aren't well and spreading the disease. So that's the critical response that we need to see.Meantime the economy: we're facing recession and job losses and many failures. I did want to acknowledge right here right now that the strength of the economy the strongest part of course will continue to be the primary industries that have been the backbone of this economy. Right now every day right out there in the rural areas of New Zealand the farmers are out there making the living that will sustain us through this crisis. I do want to acknowledge them and their hard work. They're a group that have felt set upon over the last few months and I think it is important to acknowledge that in times of crisis the New Zealand economy falls back on that rural community and provincial community which is the backbone of this economy. We acknowledge them and their work today and we wish them all the best to sustain our living standards as best we can through this difficult time.Because of the decisions made over the weekend around boundaries we do have this immediate short-term—what we hope will be short-term but we don't know how long it will go on for—real economic crisis that we're facing. It is important that we get all the detail around the decisions that were made over the weekend. We need to see all the advice behind Saturday's decision all the advice behind today's decision the modelling and this Government which is committed to openness and transparency should release those papers now so that we can understand what the situation is.And we do rest on the fact that we have come into this crisis—this rainy day—with a strong debt situation and we do acknowledge that in the first two years of this Government debt has continued to decline. It had been on that trajectory for a number of years and we also acknowledge the work of Bill English—Hon David Parker: You increased it to 23 percent of GDP.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: That's right and we got through the last global financial crisis which was a massive expansion of debt and the Christchurch earthquakes and we continued to reduce that debt so that we were able to pivot today. Successive Governments have done that—I acknowledge the guardianship of even Michael Cullen and Helen Clark in that period. Over a long period of time New Zealand has kept debt low so that we can cope in these circumstances.So what we've got in this package is the $5.1 billion in wage subsidies and we acknowledge that and we commend that; that is absolutely the right thing to be focusing on which is keeping people employed in business right now so that they can carry through this period and increase the chances of businesses staying afloat. Not all businesses will; some businesses will fall over and some people will lose their jobs but this lessens the chance of that happening in many sectors. The only point we'd note is that this is the critical issue and when we talk about helping businesses right now it's over the next month that they really need it. This is going to be the critical time; it's not going to be in four years' time with depreciation rates. They're all worthy—the other $6 billion in this package are all worthy. Taxes around provisional tax thresholds and reinstating the building depreciation and writing off—that's all worthy stuff over four years but it's not going to help right here right now. What we needed today in this package right here right now was a maximum focus on effort in keeping those businesses afloat and our frustration with this package is that there isn't the maximum focus on that hard goal right here right now. If I was to ask Mr Robertson exactly how much of this $12 billion will be reaching businesses over the next six weeks it wouldn't be all that much of it. It would be about somewhere between $3 billion or $4 billion—I don't know; I'd be interested to get the answer for it—and we need more of that money right now to keep those businesses afloat.We see $126 million put aside for leave isolation to help businesses cope with the costs of that and we support that; we agree with that. That's an important part. The thing that is missing though is the working capital support for small and medium sized businesses because what the problem is is that with so many businesses around the country seeing their revenues collapsing over the next few weeks they see their sales going down they've got their employees that they're trying to keep in place and they're immediately going to the bank and saying Well I've run out of cash. How am I going to pay my bills?" and they're having very awkward conversations with the banks. Now the natural reaction for the banks in a situation like this is that they're feeling the pressure and they will start calling in on those loans and closing down those businesses. That's the spiral that we want to avoid and so the wage subsidies will help to a small extent. It's been counteracted by the insistence—and I think quite reckless insistence—by this Government to carry on with the minimum wage increase on 1 April because that money is not coming from the Government it's not coming from a magical place; it's coming from those very businesses that are struggling to survive.We all want higher incomes but we want jobs as well and so at the same time as they're trying to give assistance to those businesses they're insisting that they pay substantially more for their wages and that doesn't make sense and it's reckless. So they're struggling with their banks in order to keep the cash flow going and the working capital coming through and we see at the end of this package that the Government has said that officials are meeting with banks to discuss the potential for future working capital support. We think that's too slow and inadequate. The United Kingdom has already made moves in this area around guaranteeing loans for small businesses and I would have thought that this package right here right now would have had some answers on that critical area today in order to get people over the line.The other point of course is having that longer-term vision and we've heard many times the Minister of Finance say that this country went into this crisis with strong momentum. That of course is false; we had 1.6 percent growth last year. So those long-term drivers of growth are critical and that's why a clear plan around infrastructure—not just announcing infrastructure but actually getting on with infrastructure—is the critical thing and I absolutely agree with what Simon Bridges says: we would support right here today urgent legislation coming in to say "This project and this project we're going to start next week or the week after. We're going to crack on to it and actually get the infrastructure spending happening right now in this country not in one year or two years' time."So overall there are a number of other useful things that have been done here and signalled with smaller business having to pay provisional tax—extending those thresholds increasing the amount with which businesses can invest in buying capital assets. We agree with all that; that all makes sense. But the critical message that we need to get across is that this is a threat to the New Zealand economy such as we have not seen in a generation and we need right now maximum support to keep people in their jobs. This package announced today goes halfway and roughly half of the $12 billion package will actually get into their hands immediately. We think that there should be more and it should be more swift and more effective in order to save those jobs. Thank you very much."