McClay Todd; Nash StuartHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Minister thank you. You said you didn't want to give them false hope but you gave them no hope in fact which is even worse because you virtually said there was no help coming and here we are a couple of months later there is some. So I take the point having been a Minister the Government's got to be very careful in what it says and what it signals but actually you did deliver for them what they're asking some months later and there are businesses that have been closed because they took you at your word. If I may a separate question—it comes to the Provincial Growth Fund because we heard a lot about this during the last term of Government in the run-up to the election and there were a lot of promises. Minister it is very important that where taxpayer money is spent it's spent properly. Your Government previously has talked about up to 12000 jobs being created by the Provincial Growth Fund. But of course in information that's just been released—and it's very hard to get this information—we see an almost $100 million proposal or announcement before the last election very close to the last election to help maraes around the country where there'd be 3100 jobs created and information released by your department shows there were just 158. So my question to you Minister is: when is the public able to take the Government's word that when they spend taxpayers' money that's being borrowed to create jobs actually the number of jobs that you and your Government have said will be created are created?Hon STUART NASH (Minister for Economic and Regional Development): Thank you Madam Chair. First of all just to the original point that the member made I do acknowledge that a number of businesses have gone into hibernation and I do acknowledge that when borders open in fact they may want to reopen to take advantage of the opportunities that come through. But I also acknowledge that when you're reopening after you've been closed for a certain length of time that is going to be really expensive and really difficult. It's the reason why we did put a $49 million fund in there—to help businesses that had gone into hibernation. I'm very keen to take a wide view of what hibernation looks like and I'm also keen to take a very wide definition of a tourism business. You know hypothetically if you're the petrol station owner in Te Ānau and 70 percent of your business comes from international tourists then as far as I'm concerned that's a tourist business. So that hibernation fund does recognise that there will be a significant cost coming out of that and hopefully will help address that.In terms of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) let me make a couple of comments before I move on to the marae rejuvenation fund. First of all the Provincial Growth Fund. When I took over as the Minister the first thing I did is I asked officials and then I asked for an independent review a line-by-line review of every single project that the PGF had funded. I wanted to be sure that in fact the right process had been followed that a process of integrity had been followed because as the member mentioned when you are spending taxpayers' money you've got to make sure that that can hold up to scrutiny. I'm very pleased to say that in every single project we went through a really robust process had been followed. There was wide consultation. Projects over a certain level had gone to a group of Ministers—I should say an independent panel that then went to Ministers. Let me talk about the marae rejuvenation project. Personally I actually think this is one of the great things we fund in this Government. I really do. I mean just last week I was in Ōpōtiki. And I'll tell you that the difference that a bit of funding made to Ōpōtiki Marae was fantastic. You know like all of us I've been to a lot of marae. They are often the centre of that community. They're the first to open when there's a tragedy. Kaikōura—who was open: the marae. During COVID who was there dishing out food and providing support: the marae. You will not find a tragedy or a circumstance or an incident where the marae actually isn't the centre not only of the Māori community but of our general community. But I also acknowledge that a number of the trusts running these marae they actually haven't got much money. They do things; they do things hard. They have immense pride in their marae but you know they haven't necessarily got the money to do them up and providing them with the means to do their marae up has been absolutely fantastic. I am aware that as a white middle-class middle-aged man talking about the impact of funding on marae it's a little bit—you know. But one thing I will say—I do acknowledge this because I visit and I think it's fantastic—to the member who did ask me that question is that actually we've had some updated figures on that and it's created over 1300 jobs—Hon Todd McClay: It's not what the OIA said.Hon STUART NASH: No—these are the updated figures as of May. So the Official Information Act reply you might have got was probably not updated; it was the early days. Three hundred and sixty marae have been earmarked for renovation; contracts have been let to 358 of them. And along with the Pasifika churches—and if you went to your local Pasifika church goodness me you know that was a fantastic investment it really was and the same with these marae. So I won't shy away from the fact that I'm very very proud of this investment. I think it will make a huge impact on the community. And we must keep in mind that the marae regeneration was not just about jobs; it was about engaging our community. Anyway I've waxed on lyrical enough about that but I thought it was a fantastic one: over 1300 jobs and over 358 of the 360 marae.