3. Question No. 3—FinanceHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 3—Finance3. Hon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister of Finance: Is it a goal of this Government's economic management to help New Zealand businesses remain competitive so that they can contribute to lifting the living standards and well-being of New Zealanders"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes.Hon Amy Adams: Does he think that with businesses and the Mood of the Boardroom ranking this Government's employment law changes as the second-biggest domestic economic concern that's a pretty big hint that this Government's changes are going to make it harder for our businesses to stay competitive?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No. I think what we heard and from the Mood of the Boardroom was that businesses in New Zealand are largely optimistic about their prospects they know that New Zealand is a great place to do business in and while from time to time there may be the odd policy disagreement they want a Government that's getting on with the job and that's what we're doing.Hon Amy Adams: Well does he think that having more than 65000 workers go on strike in the past 12 months—more than double the total of the previous nine years—is helping businesses remain competitive?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I'd be interested to know if the member is suggesting that the right to strike should be removed from workers but I would note that all of that industrial action has taken place under the policy settings of the previous Government.Hon Amy Adams: Why does he think that New Zealand has now fallen to 18th overall under the past year in the Global Competitiveness Index and specifically has declined in cooperation in labour employment relations and the flexibility of wage determinations?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I note that in that survey the biggest issues were around infrastructure gaps finding skilled employees and R & D investment—areas where the Government has inherited a deficit that we're turning around. Specifically to the member's question about pillar eight on the labour market I note that an area where we rank below our overall rank is in workers' rights and we're getting on with solving that problem too.Hon Amy Adams: How much of the Government's contingency fund in Budget 2018 which was largely set aside for public sector pay rounds has so far been allocated?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I don't have that information with me. What I do know is that this Government has undertaken in good faith a number of public sector pay rounds and particularly when it came to the nurses we were able to agree on a settlement significantly larger than what we'd been left by the National Party because we had to make up for nine years—can't do it all in one year but we're doing our best.Hon Amy Adams: So is his message to New Zealanders to just get used to more and more strike disruption in light of Unite union representatives telling the Guardian that they're gearing up for a big round of strikes in 2019?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No. My message to New Zealand is that it's time for an economy that's growing to have the benefits of that shared fairly across all New Zealanders after nine years of the opposite."