4. Question No. 4—Prime MinisterDr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 4—Prime Minister4. Dr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's policies and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. In particular I stand by one of the most significant policy-driven falls in child poverty that we've seen in recent times—since at least the introduction of Working for Families by the last Labour Government. Our Families Package increased the incomes for hundreds of thousands of families with children. Over 100000 babies' parents received an extra $60 per week through our Best Start payment and over a million New Zealanders get extra income every winter thanks to the winter energy payment. Today we've seen the impacts of this. Under this Government all nine poverty measures have gone down since the 2017-18 baseline year. We have lifted children out of material hardship and made a difference but the work continues.Dr Shane Reti: Are there more or less children in poverty today overall compared to a year ago as described in today's child poverty statistics?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If I'm to refer to the Statistics New Zealand report they have signalled a decrease in child poverty against all nine measures that we use in New Zealand. Just to give an indication of what those measures capture they capture the percentage of children who are living on 50 percent or less of the median income before housing costs the same for after-housing costs and they include material deprivation which is predominantly what the Opposition tend to use as their primary measure. For material deprivation we've seen 22400 children lifted out of material deprivation. [Interruption]Dr Shane Reti: Supplementary—SPEAKER: Just before the member goes on I'm just going to say to the Hon Willie Jackson that he is not being at all helpful when he interjects in that way and given his line with the Prime Minister when I give him a dirty look I think she thinks I'm giving her one. So I would prefer him just not to stimulate the Opposition in that way.Dr Shane Reti: How many of the indicators have got worse in the past year as a measure of absolute numbers?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm going to before I answer this question read out a statement from Statistics New Zealand that was issued in April 2019 when the child poverty stats were referenced: we emphasise the need to look at the general trend over time and caution against reaching definitive conclusions from reported year-on-year changes." That is why in the legislation which both sides of the House voted for we adopted a baseline year—that's 2017/18. We then measure our changes against that and against that we've seen a reduction against all nine measures.Dr Shane Reti: How many indicators have got worse in just the last year?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I refer the member to the legislation we all voted for which compares against the baseline measure. Against all nine measures we've seen reductions. Against an individual year Statistics New Zealand and Bryan Perry who we all in this House respect caution against making judgments based on those because (a) they are volatile and (b) they don't tell us where child poverty is actually heading.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Point of order. Statistics New Zealand's advice does not take away the responsibility of the Prime Minister to answer the question. The question was very specific about a passage in time which was the last year.Hon Chris Hipkins: Speaking to the point of order. A member cannot require a particular answer. The Prime Minister has to address the question that was asked and in some cases members will reject the premise of a question with an explanation.SPEAKER: I mean some of the rules are very clear. The member can't insist on as the member said a particular answer—certainly not a yes or no. And if someone says it is not appropriate to give an answer in that form and then addresses the general question as the Prime Minister did I think that that's acceptable.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Speaking to that point.SPEAKER: A further and different point of order the Hon Michael Woodhouse. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Well that may be correct Mr Speaker but that's not what the Prime Minister did.SPEAKER: Well we both sat here and heard it twice. Certainly the Leader of the House and I heard one thing; if the member heard another I will have a look at the tapes and see if we got it wrong. But I'm pretty convinced that the Prime Minister explained that it was not appropriate to look at one year and that it should be looked at in the totality of two. That to me is not that complicated.Dr Shane Reti: Thank you. Is the Government still committed to achieving the legislated target of less than 10 percent of children living in low-income households by 2021 when such a target would require a 32 percent reduction over the next year?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We have not changed our targets nor our ambition despite COVID-19 creating of course a challenging environment. The member will also know that we have three-year targets. On the data released today you can see for the after-housing cost measure we've already reached that target with a year to spare. However one of the more difficult targets is moving on that relative measure of before-housing costs—that is the measure that we as a Government are going to have to continue to target. Material deprivation—good progress there. We've seen a reduction there of over 2 percent. That is the one that we constantly get critique from the Opposition—I think they'll be pleased to see that progress—and we are within a sampling error of hitting that target as well.Dr Shane Reti: What contribution has a $6250 increase in the yearly cost of renting a house since she became Prime Minister contributed to today's child poverty indicators?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course we have to take any increase in housing costs against increases in incomes be it minimum wage increases; be it increases through tax credits like the family tax credit; the introduction of Best Start which is a form of universal payment—the first time we've restored that since the 1990s and it was removed from a previous Government. That's why we have these measures that are able to take into account what's happened to incomes relative to housing. Interestingly there we see the progress that's been made on the after - housing costs measure which demonstrates a reduction of 45000 children in poverty on that measure.Dr Shane Reti: What is her response to the following comment made by Shaun Robinson chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation that following his press release of 12 February criticising the Government's lack of action on the mental health inquiry recommendations he states "I was told that we were going down a very dangerous road and the only implication of that can be that there was some threat to our funding."?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I utterly reject that. Obviously those are not my words nor would they ever be. I consider it part of Mr Robinson's job to raise issues of concern because as a Government we support the role of these organisations and advocacy. I note that under the previous Government they removed the ability to be an advocate with Government contracts.Dr Shane Reti: What explanation has she or Ministers received from health officials over allegations that they tried to gag the Mental Health Foundation for criticising the Government?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Well certainly I reject that that has come at all from any Ministers here. But as for a Minister's direct response with his officials then that would be a question for Minister Little. But you'll find on this side of the House that we absolutely respect the role that organisations play advocating for improved mental health—we share the same goal."