4. Question No. 4—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 4—Finance4. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Is he sure New Zealanders are getting good results from the Government's extra spending? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): If the member is asking whether I am sure that lifting tens of thousands of children out of poverty is a good result then yes I am. If the member is asking whether I'm sure that fixing our leaky mouldy hospitals is a good result then yes I am. If the member is asking whether I'm sure lifting the incomes of more than 300000 families is a good result then yes I am. If the member is asking whether or not investing in New Zealand to address our long-term challenges is a good result and one we're making really good progress on then yeah I am. Hon Paul Goldsmith: How much of the $2 billion allocated to KiwiBuild has been spent so far and how many new houses have been delivered? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As the member knows those are questions that should be directed more accurately to the Minister of Housing. As we know at the moment 238 homes have been completed 449 KiwiBuild homes are under construction and there is a pipeline of 10356 contracted and committed KiwiBuild homes. You know what? What's really important to New Zealanders is that the Government's actually giving affordable housing a go unlike members opposite who spent nine years denying there was a housing crisis. Hon Paul Goldsmith: How many more students are in tertiary education following his Government's decision to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on free fees and extra student support? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What I can tell the member is that around $194.2 million has been saved by students who would have been charged those fees and that we have around 50000 students who are able to make use of the fees-free scheme. On this side of the House we're actually proud of helping people get educational opportunities. Hon Paul Goldsmith: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister did not answer the question. How many more students" I asked not all the other stuff he was saying. Hon Chris Hipkins: Referring back to the conversation we had about the Prime Minister's question if you look at the primary question that was set down by Mr Goldsmith he can't expect the Minister of Finance to be providing detailed answers to topics that are outside of his immediate portfolio. SPEAKER: That's right. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is he saying as finance Minister he shouldn't know the detail of what the Government is spending? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Absolutely not—I have a very good handle on that. What I do know is that tens of thousands of students have benefited from the fact that on this side of the House we actually want people to take up educational opportunities. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he think it's good practice that the only evaluation on the effectiveness of the spending currently planned for the $3 billion being put into the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is for the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment to do a study after the full $3 billion has been spent to decide whether we got value for money or not? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Many of the projects approved under the Provincial Growth Fund have very specific milestones and indicators. The real judge of the success of this is in the regions of New Zealand where all around the country people say the Provincial Growth Fund is the best thing to happen to the regions in decades because finally there is a Government that cares about the regions and invests in regional development. Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can I ask the Minister of Finance as to who he's going to listen to: those National Party members who are breaking down the door to get the Provincial Growth Fund announcements or the one from Epsom? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I know it's a great tragedy to the people of the regions that the National Party has removed the member for Epsom from his role as spokesperson for regional development. On this side of the House we are listening to the range of National MPs who are keen on regional development. I'm very much enjoying Matt King's endorsement of what's been going on in Northland right across the backbench of the National Party. They're crying out for the PGF. Hon Chris Hipkins: Has he seen examples of members of Parliament—for example the member for Hamilton East—Hon Simon Bridges: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We had a very clear approach to the Standing Orders taken today by you—quite rightfully so of course—but that's not within the Standing Orders. SPEAKER: Which Standing Order is it outside? Hon Simon Bridges: It's clearly a partisan political point being made by Chris Hipkins in the guise of a question from no provocation from the Opposition. SPEAKER: Well I would have thought that asking if he had support from a member of this Parliament for a particular policy is not necessarily—the question's not partisan. I'll be listening to the response pretty carefully. Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I always listen carefully to the wise words of David Bennett the member for Hamilton East and he along with Matt King and others across the House are crying out for the Provincial Growth Fund. I know that Shane Jones is a magnanimous person and he actually listens to members opposite and he will be delivering in all of their regions. Hon Paul Goldsmith: Is the reason the Government is spending 75 times more on the Provincial Growth Fund than it's put into Pharmac for lifesaving cancer drugs because he thinks he will get better value for money out of Shane Jones than from new cancer drugs? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No."