5. Question No. 5—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 5—Prime Minister5. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes particularly the Government's actions to increase incomes from 1 April including increases to Working for Families which will make around 346000 families better off by an average of $20 a week—adjusting the income thresholds for childcare assistance annually in line with average wage growth benefiting 1000 families or around 1500 children after this was something frozen by the previous National Government in 2010. Benefits are to increase by up to $35 a week bringing the total increases for beneficiaries with children over the time we have been in office to an average $175 per week increasing to $207 per week during the 2022 winter period. In addition on 1 April student allowances will increase by $25 superannuation will increase by $52 per fortnight for a single person and $80 for a couple. There's no silver bullet that will fix the cost of living but we have a plan and are implementing a range of measures that together will help to make a difference.David Seymour: Why did every single policy she just listed to increase incomes involve handing out taxpayer money and what does that say about her level of aspiration for New Zealand?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: If the member is opposed to universal superannuation then that is a matter for the member. If the member does not believe in Government support through sole parent support or jobseeker support that is I think an additional step even for the member. If the member doesn't believe in student support again that is for him to defend. And again if the member chooses to get rid of Working for Families again that would be a policy that I know the majority of New Zealanders would be very disappointed to hear.David Seymour: Why didn't the Prime Minister understand that was not an opportunity to talk about ACT's policies but to explain to New Zealanders what policies her Government has to raise real productivity wage growth and economic growth in this country and why didn't she have anything to say about that?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I think it's only on this side of the House where we stand to gain from New Zealanders hearing more about ACT's policies. ACT's policies which if I were to simply touch on a few—if we were just to look at the tax programme from ACT they are proposing for instance tax cuts that would essentially mean $11.85 billion a hole in future Budgets in order to give those on over $300000 a $10000 tax cut and those on $45000 or less absolutely nothing. Right now the difference between this side of the House and that is that we have chosen to make targeted investments to support lower-middle income New Zealanders and make sure that we're investing in the services that they view as critical: health education and other investments that lessen the cost of living. On the other side of the House they want tax cuts for the wealthy.David Seymour: Does she stand by her statement that New Zealanders face an energy crisis and if so will the Government's response to this energy crisis be more successful than its response to the housing crisis where the median house price has gone up $355000 or 67 percent on her watch?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I traversed earlier in question time what we have seen in the housing market be it the rental market or for homeownership more generally in the past several years dating back to well beyond even 2013. In answer to the first half of the member's question I stand by those statements which is why yesterday as a Government we moved swiftly to ensure that New Zealanders at the pump were seeing a 25c and in many cases more reduction in fuel as a result of the war in Ukraine. We stand by the quick and nimble response there shown to try and ease the pressure and although it won't solve everything our hope is combined when the 1 April changes it will make a difference for many.David Seymour: Does she stand by her earlier statement to this House that the policy to reduce petrol prices by 25c wasn't ready last year because there was no war and is a response to the war; and if she does stand by it which budgetary appropriation is she using to fund it or will this be like Ihumātao where she spent $30 million illegally and got rapped over by the Auditor-General?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I totally reject the second part of the question. But I will be generous to the member and answer the first part of the question. As the Minister of Finance already demonstrated yesterday our ability to fund the $350 million that the excise reduction would mean comes from underspend as a result of primarily underspend on COVID spending particularly managed isolation. This is a key difference. The likes of the Automobile Association have supported the initiative primarily because unlike some of the proposals from the Opposition we have said that we will not only see the reduction at the pump but we will keep funding critical transport projects and maintenance which is not what we've seen from other members in this House.David Seymour: Will the Government's response to the energy crisis be more successful than its response to what it's called a climate emergency when emissions according to Statistics New Zealand have shown no obvious sustained reductions compared to 2005"—SPEAKER: Order! Order! I've been thinking about this line of questions. The member is not relating the primary question or subsequent supplementaries to the subsequent supplementary questions and he is being ironic. I rule that question out.David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker the Prime Minister has led off talking about her energy policy. There's no irony in comparing it with the performance of other policies.SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume his seat. I've ruled the question out. Does the member want a further supplementary?David Seymour: Why did it take three months from when ACT said there was a cost of living crisis in December for the Prime Minister to admit that there is a cost of living crisis when Kiwis have known it all along?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Actually at the end of last year the Government made the decision to put in place the Working for Families changes that come in on 1 April at a cost of $270 million which we took in advance of the Budget because we anticipated exactly what we are seeing now as part of the COVID response and recovery globally causing significant cost of living increases.David Seymour: Did the Prime Minister hesitate to agree there's a cost of living crisis because usually when she declares there's a crisis in an area that's a prelude to things getting much worse?SPEAKER: Order! No. Order! The question was ironic the member knew it was ironic—David Seymour: No I didn't.SPEAKER: Yes he did.David Seymour: Mr Speaker point of order.SPEAKER: No I've ruled the question out but point of order David Seymour.David Seymour: Mr Speaker the question's only ironic if you agree the Government's policies have failed—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member's arguing with me again. He will cease now if he wants to stay here and if he wants his party to have any further supplementaries.Mark Cameron: Does she stand by her Minister Stuart Nash's statement that "I'm not … sure what Groundswell stands for these days" and that "what I have read on their website [is] a mixture of racism [and] anti-vax etc."; if not will she apologise before meeting with them?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member that the member across is referring to the Minister Stuart Nash has already addressed those comments extensively in the public. The one thing I would say in addition to that is that I have met consistently perhaps more than with any other sector with our farming leaders. We have worked constructively together on a range of significant issues and may I put on record the disappointment in the fact that across the vast majority of parties in this House there is clear support of initiatives around climate change and emissions reduction including to ensure that we maintain our reputation abroad which we trade on on behalf of our primary producers and instead unfortunately those members want to repeal the zero carbon Act which would take us backwards and make us less competitive as primary producers on the world stage.Hon Michael Wood: Does she stand by the Government's actions in securing a free-trade agreement with the United Kingdom?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Absolutely and I can do no better than reiterate the statements made by seasoned trade officials who said that this is the best agreement in their memory that New Zealand has achieved and I want to thank all members in this House who supported and worked so diligently alongside our excellent trade officials to deliver that deal which will make a huge difference for our primary producers who have carried much weight during the course of this pandemic and pandemic recovery."