1. Question No. 1—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 1—Finance1. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all of his policies and statements? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context they were made and given. In particular I stand by my statement yesterday where I stood by my statement from the day before about the situation this Government inherited where We had hospitals that had been run down $2 billion not put into the health system that needed to be kids being taught in school halls and libraries instead of classrooms not enough teachers and not enough police officers." and that we're getting on with fixing that. For future reference I will continue to stand by that. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Regarding his statement yesterday "We are in a good position to respond to any impacts of the virus because our economy ultimately is in good shape." how does he regard an economy that grew at just 1.6 percent last year as estimated by the Reserve Bank as being in good shape? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I regard the New Zealand economy as being in good shape because we have net debt levels below what we inherited because we continue to have economic growth that outperforms most of our trading partners because we have run Budget surpluses and because unemployment is down to record lows at 4 percent. These are all indicators of the economy being in good shape. The member should just be a little bit less negative about New Zealand. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he accept that if the Government hadn't turned the surpluses it had inherited into a projected deficit within two years New Zealand would be in a much stronger position to weather the economic impact of the coronavirus? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Not only do I not accept that; I don't accept the premise of the question. Hon Paul Goldsmith: What is his latest estimate of the economic cost to New Zealand of the response to COVID-19 and what is he doing to minimise those costs? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As we've announced at the beginning of the week we've put in place an $11 million package to support Tourism New Zealand to be able to reorientate their marketing. The IRD and the Ministry of Social Development continue with the work that they do to support people on the ground who have been affected either as workers or as employers through the provision of support or the delaying of provisional tax returns. We continue to work closely with all industries that are affected. Minister Nash as the Minister of Fisheries has made some changes to support the rock lobster industry to be able to return some of their catch into the sea and we continue to work on that. As the member is well aware this is a very fluid and evolving situation. That's why we've drawn together Government agencies led by Treasury the Reserve Bank and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to do scenario planning if the situation continues the virus spreads or the spread goes on for longer. At the moment as I said in the House yesterday the best advice we have is that this will have a significant but temporary impact on the New Zealand economy. Rt Hon Winston Peters: Has the Minister of Finance got any reports from IMF OECD or for that matter credit agencies which point to their not sharing this miserable petty view of the New Zealand economy? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I have a number of reports in that regard. We've had Fitch Ratings agency recently talk about the strength of the New Zealand economy and the IMF and OECD both projecting New Zealand's growth rate to continue the pattern of the last couple of years of exceeding that of countries such as Australia Canada Japan and the UK and the eurozone. The New Zealand economy is in good shape. "Negative National" might want to say otherwise but we're getting on with the job. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Did he have National's desire to reduce taxes for middle-income earners in mind yesterday when he dismissed our policies as "selfish individualism"? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I didn't have a particular National Party policy in mind when I described selfish individualism. I more had the record of nine years of ignoring the problems in our housing system of ignoring the problems in our health system of ignoring the problems in our education system and of making decisions to give tax cuts that would have benefited members of this House by over $1000 a year rather than focusing on lifting the incomes of low and middle income New Zealanders which I am pleased to say we turned around. I frequently have the member in my mind but it's more in a sense of pity that he has such a negative view of the world. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he think Kiwis would be being selfish if they wanted some tax relief? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I'm sure a lot of New Zealanders would like it if they were paying a little less tax but what they know is that the taxes that we all collectively pay is what pays for the teachers in our schools and it's what pays for the nurses in our hospitals and New Zealanders know that after nine years of his party running down New Zealand we have to spend the money on our public services. So you know I'm not saying that any New Zealander who's out there thinking "Wouldn't it be great to have a tax cut?" is wrong; what I'm saying is it's going to take a long time to make up for nine years of neglect by his party. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is it selfish for Kiwis to baulk at higher fuel taxes? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I'm not accusing any New Zealander who goes to the petrol pump and says "Why am I paying that price?" of being selfish; what I am doing is I'm accusing the National Party of having a focus on individualism at the expense of all New Zealanders doing well."