5. Question No. 5—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 5—Finance5. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by the quality of all the Government's spending allocated from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I do stand by our fiscal response to this one-in-100-year shock. The money has been allocated and invested swiftly and responsibly to support businesses and households. As is normal all of these allocations are subject to Budget scrutiny and in relevant cases due diligence and further negotiations.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is he satisfied that adequate due diligence and judgment were applied by Ministers to the Government's decision to grant $11.7 million to the Green School?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That grant was part of the shovel-ready $3 billion fund. In total that fund is something that the Government is pleased will be supporting a significant number of construction jobs all around New Zealand.SPEAKER: No. Order! The question was not addressed.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Can the member just repeat it?Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is he satisfied that adequate due diligence and judgment were applied by Ministers to the Government's decision to grant $11.7 million to the Green School?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Yes. The ongoing process of that funding being agreed to and spent is the subject of due diligence and negotiations by Crown Infrastructure Partners as is the case with all of these projects.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he think the Government's decision to make this grant demonstrates effective prioritisation of taxpayers' money?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: It is very important as we move to recover and rebuild from COVID-19 that we support our construction industry around the country. Individual projects within that have been advocated for as is on the public record by different Ministers. It is vital we do that. It's also vital that we support schools right across New Zealand to be able to build new schools rebuild schools and deal with a decade of under-investment in schools and that's why on this side of the House we're very proud of our record of making sure that we have invested more than any other Government has before in the education system after a decade of neglect.Hon Paul Goldsmith: What weighting do party political endorsements receive in the assessment of shovel-ready projects?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Nineteen hundred applications were received for the Infrastructure Reference Group fund. Crown Infrastructure Partners shortlisted that down to just over 800. Ministers were then responsible for refining that down further to the around 150 projects that have been put in place. There was a variety of discussions about that. Minister Shaw is on record for his strong advocacy of the particular project in question here.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So is it the case that a few million are set aside for Greens Ministers and a few million are set aside for New Zealand First Ministers and does he as responsible Minister bear responsibility ultimately for all those decisions?Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That question began with a certain line to do with a certain project and a certain political party and now he's sought to widen it and he should not be allowed to make any old allegation he likes without one shred of evidence even in the question.SPEAKER: Well no I've listened both to the question and to the answers that were given and I'm convinced that between the previous supplementary question and the answer from the Minister it was expanded widely enough for that question to be relevant.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: In answer to the first two of those questions no.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Has a contract been signed?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That is a matter for Crown Infrastructure Partners who have the responsibility for the negotiation. That is exactly as it should be because I'm sure the member on the other side of the House would not want individual politicians to be doing that kind of negotiation. Crown Infrastructure Partners are doing that work.SPEAKER: Order! Order! No no. I'm going to deal again with the fact that whether or not a contract had been signed was not addressed. Saying it's someone else's fault—there's only one person—well there might be two people with Mr Jones—responsible for that to this House and the Minister of Finance is the one responsible at the moment.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I am not aware of that because it is a matter for Crown Infrastructure Partners.SPEAKER: Thank you. That's much clearer.Rt Hon Winston Peters: With respect to any of the criteria that he considered did the experience of charter schools have any bearing on it?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Actually it didn't in this particular case but it is interesting those who suddenly have found a new-found interest in the promotion of public education when actually the record was a decade of under-investing in that—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Get off your high horse.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: —and preferencing charter schools. That irony is not lost on this side of the House.SPEAKER: Order! Order! Before we have another supplementary I'm going to remind the deputy leader of the National Party that it's been a long time since I've been on a horse. It may be something we share but I wouldn't possibly comment.David Seymour: Will the Government break its commitment to this Green School given how easily it broke its commitment to students who were disadvantaged students in charter schools earlier in this term of Parliament?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I reject the premise of the second part of that question.Hon Chris Hipkins: Does the Minister of Finance believe that students attending charter schools should have been learning in shipping containers as they were under the charter school model?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The charter school model is a deeply flawed ideological experiment. On this side of the House we are consistent in our support of public education and in fixing up the mess left by the National Party when they were in Government when it came to our schools.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Spent too much time with those crystals.SPEAKER: Is the member finished?Hon Members: Ha ha!SPEAKER: Well normally people stand up for their sparkly supplementaries Mr Goldsmith.