2. Question No. 2—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 2—Finance2. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all of the Government's statements policies and actions in relation to the economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context that they were given made and taken.Hon Paul Goldsmith: What policies if any is he considering to help Kiwis who have saved all their lives for their retirement and are now facing very low interest rates on their deposits and the prospects of negative interest rates?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As the member well knows the decisions around the official cash rate are made independently by the Reserve Bank. When it comes to what we're doing to support particularly older New Zealanders I think the achievement I'm most proud of in that regard is actually restarting contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund which the previous Government had stopped for nine years.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he accept that retirees receiving less interest from their savings will particularly struggle to pay this Government's higher fuel taxes?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What I know is that those who are in receipt of New Zealand superannuation are especially pleased about the fact that this Government has brought in the winter energy payment which is actually making it much easier for them to meet their costs of living right at the moment. As I stated before the decision around the official cash rate and what that means for interest rates is an independent one made by the Reserve Bank Governor.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he accept that the Government's winter heating bonus was simply a device to compensate older New Zealanders for the cancelation of National's tax cuts?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What I accept is that it's a policy that has been received around New Zealand with acclaim. It was part of a package—the Families Package—that meant that low and middle income New Zealanders and those on fixed incomes got a boost in their income rather than a series of unfocused tax cuts that would have delivered more than $1000 a year to Mr Goldsmith and myself.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is he comfortable with the prospect of negative interest rates or printing money and if not what's he doing to avoid it being required?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Those are not decisions that are taken by the Government; they are taken by the Reserve Bank. In terms of what we are doing what we are doing is getting on with investing in our economy—for example making sure that more than $40 billion worth of capital expenditure will be going out the door; whereas the previous Government only had about $30 billion planned.Hon Paul Goldsmith: With regard to the Governor of the Reserve Bank's comments about Government spending Our challenge is that spending actually gets done because there are lags and delays and challenges around infrastructure spend." has he encouraged his transport Minister to revisit his decision to cancel or delay dozens of road projects that were ready to go and replace them with a bunch of projects that are not ready to go?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I back the transport Minister's decision to have a transport strategy that works for all New Zealand across all modes of transport and I particularly back the fact that he is coming forward with transport projects that are actually funded not ghost roads that Mr Bridges put forward.Hon Chris Hipkins: Can the Minister of Finance confirm that a number of the roading projects promised at the end of the tenure of the last Government had not been planned consented or funded under their Government?SPEAKER: No no no. The member might've got it right if he went a couple of days later.Hon Paul Goldsmith: How is he confident that the increased investment that the Reserve Bank expects from lower interest rates will actually occur given the very low levels of business confidence in this country right now?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I back what the Reserve Bank Governor said. This is a great time to invest in New Zealand. This is a country that has an enormous amount of potential and it is just really sad to see the relentless negativity of the Opposition when actually there is so much to celebrate about what's happening in the New Zealand economy."