1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and actions including her statement yesterday when asked about geometric mean growth she said when taking into account spreading over that period of time spreading over the increase is a much more accurate way of taking one month out of the year"?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes. The premise of the member's question is false and serves as proof of a poor understanding of basic facts. Her decision to try and explain that to a member needing numerical literacy was indeed a brave one.Hon Simon Bridges: What did she mean when she said the geometric mean takes one month out of the year?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The use of the geometric mean measurement provides an estimate of what the typical or middle household is paying in rent. It's similar to the median in that regard or the average in that regard. That's what that means.Hon Simon Bridges: Why did she say yesterday that I had selectively chosen figures which showed the median rent has increased by $30 a week under her Government compared to $12 a week under the previous Government?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Because unsurprisingly the member came to this House with some false facts and thought to get them out in front of the public. Here are the real facts though: if you go and look at for example 2017 rent increases 4.8 percent; 2018 the first year of this Government 4.8 percent; and way below the 5 percent when he was a Minister in 2015. That's what it means.Hon Simon Bridges: Well wouldn't it in fact be selective to use anything other than the total rent increase under her Government with the total rent increase under the previous Government: $30 versus $13?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: It would be well-known to anyone who is literate in both this issue statistics as well as the law or property that for many periods you have a long flat period in rentals then all of a sudden you have the spike. If you measure the spike and call it an average you'll come up with the conclusion that member came up with in the House yesterday.Hon Simon Bridges: Isn't she simply overcomplicating matters with gobbledegook like "geometric mean" because she doesn't want to face the facts of very significant rent increases in the last year due to her policies?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I do confess that I may have made a mistake yesterday in not referring that member the leader of the National Party to his spokesman on statistics in this country. Then he might have been better informed rather than come down here drag one month call it 12 and come up with the cock-and-bull story in terms of stats he did yesterday.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she stand by her statement in relation to whether banning letting fees will see landlords increase rents to cover the cost that she hopes that won't be the case?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The Prime Minister's statement—and would be to this question as well—refers to the fact that the National Party is using selective data which varies significantly month to month. Everybody in the real estate market knows it everybody in the rent market knows it and the tenants know it as well as the landlords. The Prime Minister described in the previous answer the benefits of the geometric mean stating "arithmetic means are too sensitive to changes in the higher value."Hon Gerry Brownlee: This is getting worse for the Government.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I lost you a long time ago.SPEAKER: That's sort of like even. Start again please.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she still have hope her policy won't lead to higher rents when there are property companies emailing their clients telling them to increase rents by amounts such as $6 a week to recover the abolished letting fees?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Could I just say that the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Housing and Urban Development as well as the Prime Minister—on behalf of the Prime Minister; and as well as yours truly but answering for the Prime Minister—have said that there could be a temporary rise whilst we try and get on top of the massive shortage in supply of housing built up over the last nine years. Now there used to be a time the National Party understood supply side economics but they don't when it comes to housing.Hon Simon Bridges: How much will the temporary rise be or does she not know because she's motivated by good intentions rather than any kind of evidence or good outcomes?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: What I can say on behalf of the Prime Minister is that being motivated by ambitious intentions and positivism has seen a sizeable rise in the support of the coalition Government and its parties heading towards 60 percent and if you want to ask what one of their coalition parties' potential polling at the moment might be well it's fully 3 percent higher than it was at election day in 2017—Hon Simon Bridges: What's your polling? Tell us about yours.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well it's very positive actually and that's why we're going to Christmas with a present we didn't even ask for.Hon Simon Bridges: How long will this temporary rise last and how much will it be?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The Government admitted when it saw the mess and the dysfunctionalism between supply and demand in housing in this country that we wouldn't be able to fix it up all in one year or indeed two years but because we were prepared to address a massive crisis in the housing situation of this country that there would be temporarily possibly a rise of an amount which we don't know but then because we would be building 100000-plus houses we'd get on top of this problem. Not like the previous Government that denied there was a crisis until the day after the election then they discovered one in the same way Columbus discovered America—purely by accident."