1. Question No. 1—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Finance1. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: What steps if any has he taken to ensure the integrity of ministerial decisions in the major spending programmes announced in the previous two Budgets?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): To ensure the integrity of ministerial decisions in the funding of major spending programmes announced through the Budgets I direct Treasury to prepare the financial recommendations for the Budget Cabinet paper. This involves the recommendations being drafted by responsible agencies in line with the decisions made by Budget Ministers. It involves them being checked by Treasury vote teams to ensure decisions are accurately reflected and that the recommendations are correct. These recommendations are then checked and QA'd by a central team within Treasury along with a separate review by experienced Treasury staff members who are not involved in developing the Budget. This is exactly the same process as when the member was in Government under Bill English and Steven Joyce as finance Ministers. The responsibility for the integrity of individual ministerial decisions rests with Ministers themselves on advice from the Cabinet Office as appropriate.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he agree that two critical ways the public can be sure of the integrity of ministerial decisions are the register for pecuniary interests and the declarations of donations to respective political parties so that the public can weigh up perceived or real conflicts of interest?SPEAKER: This Minister is not responsible for conflicts of interest. I'm going to invite the member to rephrase his question.Hon Paul Goldsmith: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am putting to the Minister of Finance a proposition that relates directly to the question which is about the integrity of ministerial decisions—SPEAKER: Yes and I've heard enough. I listened very carefully to the question as to whether all of it was within ministerial responsibility and I ruled that it was not all within this Minister's responsibility.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Has anything he has seen in the past three days caused him to question or doubt that the integrity of ministerial decision-making about major spending projects has been maintained?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No. I continue as all Ministers do to comply with the decisions that have been made by Cabinet around elements of the Budget process and with respect to that and the matters for which I am responsible no.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So is he telling the House he has seen nothing in the past three days that causes him to question or doubt the integrity of ministerial decision-making about major projects for which he is responsible?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I said in my previous answer for the matters for which I am responsible no.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Has he spoken directly to the Deputy Prime Minister in the past three days about real or perceived threats or questions about the integrity of ministerial decision-making?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No in respect of the matters that I am responsible for.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Has he considered putting on hold major spending decisions involving New Zealand First Ministers until the serious allegations involving donations are investigated or resolved?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why not?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Because I am doing my job following through on the recommendations agreed to by Cabinet with respect to the Budget. For the matters for which I'm responsible I continue to work closely with all of my ministerial colleagues.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he have any concern about public perceptions about the integrity of ministerial decision-making on major spending projects in his Government?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I said with respect to the matters for which I am responsible I continue to keep an eye on those. I do not have any specific concerns. I can say one thing for sure: I'm not going to take advice from the National Party about transparency of political donations.