4. Question No. 4—FinanceHon JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 4—Finance4. Hon JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement regarding people in hardship that what we want to do is ensure that the current forms of support we have are adequate"; if so will the Government take action in response to the Salvation Army's observation that despite actions taken so far "critical food insecurity issues for people and whānau persist"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): As the member will appreciate responding to an outbreak of this sort is an ongoing challenge which means that we are constantly monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on different groups in society. This does include reassessing the adequacy of support that is available and where we need to to take further action. A good example of this just today was the announcement by Ministers Henare and Sio of $23 million additional support through the Whānau Ora programme comprising $8.8 million of direct support for hard-to-reach whānau with complex needs and a further $14.2 million available to be distributed in response to additional needs amongst communities more affected by the changes. In addition to that the Government has announced $26 million today to support Pasifika health and disability services in recognition of the impact the recent outbreak has had on those communities. We will continue to reassess the situation and provide support as we can.Hon James Shaw: Does he agree with the Salvation Army that "food hardship is always a symptom of other issues facing that person or whānau." and if so what new actions will the Government take to address housing costs power bills and other strains on household budgets during the lockdown?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: In answer to the first part of the question yes I would accept that that is often the case. That is why we have a range of supports available to people to be able to work on issues like rent or power bills. And I do note that the number of calls the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) is getting is higher than normal and it is about responding to those needs both through emergency grants and other forms of support.Hon James Shaw: Will he consider using the COVID Response and Recovery Fund to provide more income support so that people can shop and buy their own food and take pressure off food parcel providers who are obviously experiencing huge demand?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As we discussed yesterday obviously we have increased our main benefit significantly and there is more to come in that regard on 1 April with the announcement we made in the Budget. The nature of a situation like this where it is a crisis situation is that it is important to get the food and the support out quickly. That's why we use the agencies and the approaches that we do. Longer term we continue to look for ways that we can support our low-income New Zealanders.Hon James Shaw: If—just in reference to—what he's just said about the speed at which support is to be deployed is correct can he confirm that last year during lockdown there were only seven days between when the Cabinet made the decision to provide the wage subsidy and when the first cheques were essentially being written to businesses?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I believe it may have even been quicker actually in terms of perhaps about five days. The problem—and not that I'm suggesting necessarily this is what the Government is doing here—with making changes to main benefit rates for instance is they do have a significantly longer lead time.Hon James Shaw: Why is that?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That is a very very good question and I don't have the answer for it today but it does relate to the way in which the Ministry of Social Development's systems work. There is a very very large number of people involved and when we are changing supports that in turn triggers other changes to other assistance that they might be getting as well. So it's complex but it has been one of the issues that over my time as a Minister I have sought answers on because I do believe that when Governments make policy changes we should be able to implement them as soon as possible.Hon James Shaw: Will he consider using the COVID Response and Recovery Fund to support people with phone or internet credit so that they can actually contact MSD and access the support that is available?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: If there are people in the situation where they simply are unable to contact MSD we would want to know about that and ensure that we can support them in their immediate situation. In terms of more broad support on paying bills like that that is indeed what emergency assistance through MSD can be used for.Hon James Shaw: Will the Government increase the thresholds for housing-related special needs grants as it did last year and if not why not?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: At this stage the Government does not have a plan to do that but as I said in my primary answer we continue to monitor the impact of this outbreak on our low-income households and we will respond accordingly.Hon James Shaw: In light of that answer what further evidence of hardship during the lockdown is the Government looking for before it decides that it's going to take new actions to support those people who are really doing it tough right now?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Well as I say we are in a continuous process of that. You will have seen as I referenced in my primary answer that we have responded where we have the relationships where we know we've got the systems in place. It's not a matter of a particular threshold or anything like that; it's simply responding to what we see in the community."