6. Question No. 6—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 6—Prime Minister6. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and policies?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. In particular I stand by this Government's actions to reconnect New Zealanders to the world beginning at 11.59 p.m. on 27 February with New Zealanders and other eligible travellers from Australia. Our plan will see all New Zealanders and key visa holders able to enter the country without managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) over the next three months to reconnect families reconnect businesses and reconnect us to visitors. We begin to reopen in the context of high vaccination levels our booster and paediatric vaccine campaign and public health measures designed to protect us from the worst of Omicron. MIQ has been invaluable in protecting New Zealand from the worst of COVID but it has not been without heartache and has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic but it's also helped put us in a position to now move forward together safely.David Seymour: Why does the New Zealand tourism industry have to wait until the end of this year nearly to reconnect with the world when Australia's tourism industry will be welcoming tourists by the end of this month?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That's actually not correct. The first step for reopening to tourists is in July and we've also really predicated that date as being our maximum; it's by July. Our expectation is that in line with the advice from our experts when we do see higher case numbers in New Zealand the additional impact of seeding at our border is lessened. So we do expect that there is every chance that that date will come forward. That's the date that Australians are able to re-enter; of course progressively we move through with visa-waiver countries and then finish with those requiring visas and that's at October.David Seymour: Does she stand by the answer she gave to a question about whether Government spending has led to higher inflation I refute that. I absolutely refute that." and if she was right was Treasury wrong to advise the finance Minister that "Increases in fiscal stimulus … have exerted inflationary pressures"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What you'll have seen from my answers in their entirety is that the vast majority of inflationary pressures are coming from as I've said—and this has been noticed by Stats New Zealand—fuel prices and building and construction. Some of that is of course exacerbated by supply constraints and supply chain issues. As you will have seen from my answers that is the case in other countries also—the likes of Australia the US and the UK; their bureaux of statistics all pointing to the same inflationary pressures.David Seymour: Can the Prime Minister point New Zealanders to one country registering higher inflation than New Zealand that we'd like to be compared with excluding the United States which was the only country in the OECD that had a bigger Government spend-up through COVID?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I take from the premise of the member's question that he disagrees with the Government support that has been put in place over the course of the pandemic. That's all that I can conclude. If the member is precluding for instance as he said a country that has put investment into their COVID recovery because I would have of course named the United States at 7 percent. Yes we have invested Government spending to ensure that we could deliver a wage subsidy which kept people connected to their jobs and contributed to a 3.2 percent unemployment rate. We invested in the Resurgence Support Payment and we invested in support specifically for small business. Now if the member disagrees with those initiatives it is his prerogative but on this side of the House we stand by them.David Seymour: So are New Zealanders to take it their Prime Minister can't name another country in the world with higher inflation that we'd like to compare ourselves with?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The countries that we most often compare ourselves to of course—as the member well knows New Zealand is sitting at 5.9 percent. The UK is sitting at 5.4 percent Germany at 5.3 percent Canada at 4.8 percent and the United States at 7 percent. The point is that these countries are all experiencing similar impacts and that is because most of the contributing factors towards that are being internationally driven.David Seymour: Can she give New Zealanders some hope of getting their way of life back by promising to lift all COVID-19 restrictions this calendar year and if not why not?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We don't wish to have restrictions in place longer than they are required. Of course we have only used them in order to make sure that we are able to enjoy a way of life that feels like it has some kind of normality. The fact that we have now these lower levels of restrictions is because we have high rates of vaccination. It's because New Zealanders have gone out and supported the vaccination campaign that we now have some lower restrictions that even other countries that have Omicron currently have. When we are able to we will even remove those because our constant drive is to have as much normality as possible whilst also keeping one another safe.David Seymour: How does she explain to New Zealanders—94 percent have done their bit gone out got double vaccinated while we still have some of the most stringent restrictions on our border and on our way of life of any country outside Communist China?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I would reject that. For instance there are some countries that have had stay at home orders for the better part of two years consistently. We have not had that. We've even now you'll see that we've got—yes we have gathering restrictions but otherwise businesses are able to open they are able to trade and that is precisely because of the vaccination rates and because we are using targeted restrictions that we know make a difference on Omicron. The member may have missed this but relative to other countries we've had some of the best outcomes in the world. Has it come with New Zealanders having to make sacrifices? Yes—but name a country who hasn't and has still come out with some of the lowest hospitalisations death rates and still maintained economic growth and low unemployment. I stand by our COVID response."