Ngarewa-Packer Debbie; Willis NicolaDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Tēnā tātou e te Whare. Look just a couple of questions please. We've been concerned—in fact last night we were debating how we protect small to medium sized businesses. So it's a unique position Te Pāti Māori finds itself in asking the Government about economic questions and surely productivity. So we've now got a decision that will axe and limit the economic ability within Te Wai Pounamu and its aspirations and ability to grow. We have been extremely concerned with the messages that we've had from businesses in Te Wai Pounamu. So we have a couple of questions.If we are continuing down this cancel culture" approach economically can you please explain what the Government is doing to connect—has it communicated with those businesses who are in shock who have had aspirations to grow their economy and what is it that you are doing (1) to contact them; (2) what is the solution that you're providing them instead of because their aspirations have been built around this project—rightly or wrongly; we're certainly not sticking up on either side. What we are more focused on is how their economic aspirations will be realised when you will be able to support them and most importantly what degree of investment is the Government going to provide so that the businesses the very grassroots people who have been relying on this project and this solution to happen will happen?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I thank the member for her question and her appreciation that actually the wellbeing of all New Zealanders is dependent on businesses being able to thrive employ people grow and innovate. I can assure the member that our Government is committed to a range of policies to assist in that.When it comes to this specific project I repeat the assurances in my initial ministerial statement: we know that there are people who are impacted by this decision but we wish to reassure them that we remain 100 percent committed to reliable interisland ferry services and that we will make decisions that allow those to continue to be delivered. We appreciate the importance of that connection for freight and for passengers.DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Tēnā koe. Can I seek clarity please on which businesses which sector within the business sector have been communicated with or consulted bar the release that came out?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): We have asked that KiwiRail engage its contract partners and stakeholders in communicating this information and we anticipate further engagement in the days and weeks ahead.DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Can I please seek clarity: have Ngāi Tahu Wakatū the Māori business sector who are extremely successful and prominent in Te Wai Pounamu—what has been the engagement with them and how are they being supported to realise their aspirations economically that they've had on hold for a very long time?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I thank the member for her question and I would welcome further engagement with that group. I think the point here that we can agree on is that there are a number of stakeholders with an interest in ferry services across the Strait. Those stakeholders include businesses the port and KiwiRail itself. I wish to re-evaluate this project not just from the perspective of KiwiRail but actually from the perspective of all port users ferry users and freight users to ensure that we're coming up with a solution that best delivers value for all New Zealanders not just for the KiwiRail business.DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Just one last question. Have the regional and local government authorities been engaged and what has been their feedback to the Government about this change of direction?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): We will be carrying out engagement with those entities in the coming days. I wish to be clear with the House about the challenge that we found ourselves in which is that we had a financial situation on our desks that required urgent resolution due to requests to draw down funding. At the point that Cabinet made a decision responding to the urgency of that we then knew that we had made a very market-sensitive decision. What we thought was important to do was communicate that to KiwiRail as quickly as possible so that they could then make the appropriate engagement with their contractual partners. We moved quickly to do what we said we would which was as soon as was possible to make open to the whole public to all New Zealanders the decision we'd made and the reasons for it.I don't think it's conscionable that the previous Government knew since February last year that this project blew out to $2.6 billion and chose not to do anything to allow people awareness of that problem.SPEAKER: No sorry—Hon NICOLA WILLIS: We got given a basket case—SPEAKER: Sorry the member—Hon NICOLA WILLIS: —we took action—SPEAKER: The member doesn't appear to be listening. Ministerial statements need to stay tightly to the matter being dealt with without the added speculation. I might just offer that advice to all Ministers who might be listening now."