Tabuteau Fletcher: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTabuteau Fletcher: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 01 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8385. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]9.FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context in which they were made.Fletcher Tabuteau: Does he stand by his statement that “… it does not matter that much whether there is a small surplus or a small deficit—it is the fact that Government finances are headed broadly in the right direction.”?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes that sounds pretty sensible. Getting the Government back to surplus is a very important symbolic target to achieve but in the long run it is a matter of whether we have good disciplines around capital spending and a strong focus on getting results for our social spending. Those are the things that determine Government spending in the long run.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can he assure the New Zealand public that the September quarter’s $545 million deficit is heading in the right direction?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I am not sure what the member is referring to; it may be the first 3 months the first quarterly accounts for the Government. The Treasury does do some quarterly forecasts about where the accounts will be and generally it would expect them to track towards the number that was estimated in the Budget. That will be all updated in the next few weeks when the Government issues the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.Fletcher Tabuteau: Would he acknowledge that the whole surplus reported in the June quarter arose simply due to a very artificially manufactured exercise in creative accounting; if not why not?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No I certainly would not acknowledge that. The Government accounts are signed off by the Auditor-General according to really the strictest standards of public sector accounting in the world. The number is what the number is. Of course getting to a deficit or a surplus is a result of a whole lot of decisions not just one decision but there is no question of the member’s assertion of dodgy accounting.Fletcher Tabuteau: How can he say he is confident about Government finances given that he has cut departmental budgets resulting in cuts to SuperGold card travel entitlements cuts to support to rural ACC clients and abandoning payments into the Cullen fund for example—I could go on but how can he be confident?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The public seems to have confidence because the most recent Kiwis Count survey shows that members of the public rate their public services higher than ever and as continuing to improve. So if the measure is not what politicians like going on about—that is whether the Budget was cut or expanded—but what the public cares about which is the quality of service then I think we can have growing confidence that we are getting value for money.Fletcher Tabuteau: Would he concede that the Government finances are heading in completely the wrong direction given that the last four consecutive financial quarters combined show a huge deficit? Minister you do not have a surplus at all do you?Hon Member: That’s not a question.Hon BILL ENGLISH: In answer to the part of the question that was a question no I do not agree with the member. The Government has got its books basically back to balance. It has done that through a combination of some growth in tax revenue from a growing economy and from a strong focus on the quality of spending. I suspect it will be a matter for public debate because New Zealand First and Labour have a track record of throwing money at every problem and making no difference to those problems. We have a track record of being much more thoughtful about how the money is spent and actually are now starting to address some of the hard-core social problems in New Zealand that generate a lot of Government expenditure.