8. Question No. 8—Prime MinisterDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 8—Prime Minister8. DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and policies?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: How can she stand by her Government's policies on the rising costs of essentials for whānau such as kai given that food prices rose by 1.2 percent in June and are 6.6 percent higher than a year ago?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Because of course we are working very hard as a Government—where we have the ability to—to ensure that we are bringing down those costs where they are related to systemic issues like for instance competition in our grocery sector. You can see we've been very forthright in that area undertaking the market study with the Commerce Commission and working to very quickly to implement their findings. We hold deep concerns around the impact of lack of competition in New Zealand and the fact that it is impacting on whānau thorough food prices. Secondly you can see with our cost of living payment which comes in on 1 August we are producing a time-limited payment to try and ease the burden of the cost of living increases for this period on whānau—$350 for anyone on $70000 or less. We hope that too will have an impact.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What is her response to the 76 percent of people who in a recent poll said they supported Te Paati Māori's policy to remove GST on kai which would offset the impact of inflation on food prices?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm really genuine in the consideration that we have given this issue because you will have seen that in the past the Labour Party has policies around for instance GST on things like fresh fruit and vegetables. There have been concerns all the way through whenever such policies are raised that it cannot be guaranteed that such reductions will be passed on in the long term to consumers and whānau—and I genuinely hold that concern particularly given some of what we've seen the Commerce Commission point out is happening within our grocery sector. The second concern is just the fact that we have a very simple broad-based GST system. So what have we been doing instead? Trying to lift the incomes of families. That's income increases through the minimum wage our commitments to public servants receiving a living wage the increases in main benefit rates—and you can see the significant impact we've had there—and family tax credit which goes to working and non-working New Zealanders. All of these things are designed to give greater dignity to New Zealanders to determine their own decisions in addressing their family needs.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What is she doing about the fact that the People's Inquiry into Student Wellbeing found that tertiary students spend more than half of their income on rent and two-thirds of students can't afford basics such as food bills and healthcare?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Obviously this is an area where we have been making changes because we've identified that there is a need to increase the support for our students. That's why we made the first year of post-secondary education free. Apprenticeships are also free. We've also increased student support since 2017—it represents roughly a 50 percent increase in the amount that students who are eligible are receiving—and also their ability to borrow. We have made changes. We accept that there is more to do but the changes we've made have been significant.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Does she agree with Bernard Hickey that Governments should call on boards and company owners to return as much of the $20 billion in COVID cash handouts as they no longer need to fund anti-poverty programmes given that the handouts the money printing pushed up asset values of households and businesses by $824 billion?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: We simply ask those who sought the Government's support that was available to make sure that they complied with the conditions that we set down. That of course is obviously what we asked of those who were ultimately required to pass on for instance things like the wage subsidy to ensure that they maintained a connection between their employees to the job market. You can see the difference that it made.