3. Government Financial Position—Spending Commitments and DebtHon STEVEN JOYCE (National) to the Minister of FinanceGovernment Financial Position—Spending Commitments and DebtHon STEVEN JOYCE (National): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I'd just like to raise an issue in relation to question No. 3 if I could and how it has been edited by the Clerk's office—Mr SPEAKER: I don't think the member needs to; I'm well briefed on it. If he doesn't like what has happened he can come and have a talk privately and it would've been best to do that before midday because his office was informed at 11 a.m.Hon STEVEN JOYCE (National): Yes actually the office did go back and talk further with the Clerk's office but there was no change to the situation—Mr SPEAKER: That's right. I'll just make it very clear to members: there was an additional clause on this question similar to one that was allowed yesterday or the day before. I indicated that I thought that clause was unnecessary to the sense of the question and the question therefore has been truncated to where the question makes sense without additional information. I think the member knows that's absolutely consistent with Speakers' rulings—some very good ones.Hon STEVEN JOYCE (National): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. If I could speak to the point of order a little further. I'm just concerned—and I don't want to prolong this unnecessarily—that the public at home understand the context and I understand that certainly if they'd been watching question time as I'm sure most people do religiously every day then they would of course be aware of the context from prior days but if they've just tuned in for the first time today perhaps in this new Parliament they wouldn't be aware of the context. We should be potentially thinking of them so that they are fully informed as to the—Mr SPEAKER: And if the member wants to introduce material that is not necessary for his primary question as part of his supplementaries as long as he can get it within order he will be allowed to do so.3. Hon STEVEN JOYCE (National) to the Minister of Finance: Is he committed to $7.92 billion of additional operating spending on health and $6.214 billion of additional operating spending on education between now and 2022 over and above that contained in the pre-election economic and fiscal update?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): The Government is committed to properly funding health and education and we will also start to restore the billions of dollars of underfunding in health that has built up over the last nine years. As the member knows the specific dollar allocations to achieve this will be set out in the Budget documents but the expenditure levels in his question are our starting point.Hon Steven Joyce: Is the finance Minister committed to the $850 million of additional spending over four years on R & D tax credits and the $240 million for his Government's Ready for Work policy as also laid out in the Labour Party's pre-election fiscal plan?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Yes we're committed to both of those policies. The exact amount of funding required for them will of course be in the Budget documents.Hon Steven Joyce: Perhaps to short-circuit things is he committed to all the spending commitments as laid out in Labour's pre-election fiscal plan?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The member will be aware that since the fiscal plan was released by the Labour Party a Government has been formed involving the Labour Party New Zealand First and the Greens. Perhaps his lack of understanding of MMP explains why he's sitting where he is.Hon Steven Joyce: Appreciating the maturity of the Minister—Mr SPEAKER: Order! No commentary—just straight to a question.Hon Steven Joyce: Will he meet to his point all the additional spending commitments that he's highlighted have been agreed between the governing parties—Labour New Zealand First and the Greens—from the residual operating allowance that he's set out in the Labour Party's pre-election fiscal plan?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As the member well knows the final operating allowances are subject to the full Budget process.Hon Steven Joyce: What then is his reaction to ANZ Chief Economist Cameron Bagrie who commented on Newstalk ZB this morning that We think they'll need another $6 billion or $7 billion on top of their debt to meet his spending commitments which would take his net debt to around $74 billion in 2022 compared to just $56 billion as forecast in the pre-election fiscal update"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On this occasion I disagree with Mr Bagrie; on some occasions I've agreed with him just as the member has where I suspect he disagreed with him when he was digging his $11 billion hole.Hon Simon Bridges: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Respectfully Mr Speaker you had Mr Joyce on when he added commentary. We've had it now repeatedly from the Minister of Finance. It's not fair.Mr SPEAKER: I can see where the member's coming from and I will ask Mr Robertson just to be a little tighter in his answers especially following reprimands although I think it is fair to say that there were a couple of commentaries from Mr Joyce before I did pull him up.Hon Steven Joyce: Does the member appreciate he's been the Minister of Finance for only three weeks and already commentators are saying we're looking at a net debt forecast around $18 billion or $19 billion higher than was forecast in the pre-election fiscal update?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I disagree with those forecasts.Tamati Coffey: What are the recent historical trends for Government spending on education and health?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: In 2009 Government spending on health and education was a combined 12.5 percent of GDP. By last year this had fallen to 11.1 percent of GDP. In dollar terms the health budget has been underfunded by more than $2 billion which is why more and more New Zealanders have missed out on the healthcare they need. This Government will change that."