2. Question No. 2—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 2—Finance2. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Is he confident that the Government's COVID-19-related spending is fully justified and providing industry sectors with the certainty they require?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I am confident that the spending is justified given the one-in-100-year shock to the global and New Zealand economies. The spending has given us the ability to go hard and early against COVID19 to keep New Zealanders safe to allow our economy to open up sooner and to support the economic recovery by protecting jobs and investing to create new jobs. I'm also confident that we are providing certainty to industry by ensuring funding is available for the projects that we are announcing. Hon Paul Goldsmith: So why has his Government not announced details of the so-called shovel-ready projects now to give civil contractors as much certainty as possible?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I believe the Prime Minister covered this in some depth in the answer to the previous question. One of the issues for example is the issue around due diligence and to reiterate a point that the Prime Minister has made I am sure that if we announced projects that hadn't been through that the member would be the first to criticise us for that.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So is he saying categorically that each project is being announced immediately after due diligence has been completed by Ministers?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That is one of the factors that determines when it's announced.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why is the Government trickling out" spending announcements—that's a phrase used by civil contractor industry leaders—over the next few weeks in the lead-up to an election?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Again we have covered this ground. We're making sure the contracts are fully finalised. We're making sure due diligence has been done. I reject the pejorative statement that goes with that but also endorse what the Prime Minister has said: along with the Infrastructure Industry Reference Group projects we have the $12 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme and we have the massive record investment in health and education infrastructure all of which is being rolled out as we speak. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Well what's more important: ministerial announcements in high-vis during an election campaign or providing certainty about jobs as soon as possible?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What's important is actually funding the projects that we promise making sure that the money's there not just relying on press releases and ghost roads.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Regarding press releases and ghost roads there was a big press release about light rail in Auckland. How's that coming along?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Again we covered this ground yesterday with the Prime Minister so I don't think we need to go over that. I did however see a press release that said that the first element of a $31 billion infrastructure plan was a four-lane highway with two tunnels which turned out not to have any funding or any costings at all.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How are the fiscals the potentials and the legal work going behind the Transmission Gully stoppage?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Regrettably the public-private partnership signed up to by the previous Government is not progressing in a way that this Government would be comfortable with and I think members on the other side may need to take a look in the mirror when it comes to whether or not projects are properly designed and properly funded.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he think that having the vision to connect 2.5 million New Zealanders who live between Whangārei Tauranga and Hamilton is not a good idea?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: If all the Opposition over there have got is a vision they're going to be over there for a very long time.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he think it's appropriate to use scarce scientific funds to send friends of the Deputy Prime Minister to Antarctica?SPEAKER: Order! That's not related to the question. The member knows it and will lose a supplementary as a result.Chris Bishop: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just wanted to test you on that ruling Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Well better not.Hon Members: Ha ha!SPEAKER: Order! Order! The primary question was absolutely specific and it did not relate to Antarctica funding."