4. Question No. 4—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 4—Prime Minister4. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes particularly the Government's efforts to secure our recovery which have been reflected in GDP increasing 1.6 percent in the first three months of 2021. Overall the economy was 2.4 percent above where it was in the March quarter last year outperforming the countries we compare ourselves to such as Australia the United States Canada the United Kingdom and Japan. While there is a lot of uncertainty on how COVID-19 will affect different parts of the global economy our recovery plan has kept people in jobs with unemployment in the March quarter at 4.7 percent and supported businesses with ongoing targeted stimulus. The Government will keep its focus on keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 accelerating our recovery and making progress on longstanding issues such as climate change housing and child wellbeing.Hon Judith Collins: Does she think New Zealanders would have expected her Government to have delivered more than just five extra acute mental health beds in the two years since she announced $1.9 billion for mental health?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: On our mental health programme we were very clear from the outset that we wanted to focus on trying to support those New Zealanders who find themselves in our mental health system and often at the very acute end without necessarily having had support through primary mental health services. So we have been building those primary mental health services and 1.4 million New Zealanders are now enrolled in primary health care with access to mental health and addiction services. They're offering 10000 sessions per month. Those are sessions that did not exist before. Take that alongside funding for Youthline for our youth health services the roll-out of health services in schools Mana Ake and counselling services in schools—we are building the front end of mental health. When it comes to capital and bed space the member will know well the time that takes. I understand in 2015 Minister Little that the one programme or project that National funded took over five years to deliver. We want to do things more quickly than that but building buildings and creating bed space does take longer.Hon Judith Collins: Why does it take two years just to put in five extra acute mental health beds?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Under that Government there was no business cases for any new acute mental health services. We have had to build from scratch in some areas—for instance in the East Coast where there have not been drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation beds we are starting from scratch. So the member may like to reflect on her own time in office as to why we have had to do that.Hon Judith Collins: Is she satisfied with the implementation of her $1.9 billion mental health announcement from Budget 2019 when only 0.2 percent of the funding for new facilities has been spent after two years?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Over 200 general practice sites are delivering integrated primary mental health and addiction services; over 520 fulltime-equivalents are contracted to provide services; 134000 sessions have been delivered by new primary mental health and addiction services since our announcements; 96000 students have access to school-based health services; 800 additional Māori and Pacific cultural competency workforce training places every year; 1400-plus people are supported by Te Ara Oranga the meth harm reduction programme; and 74 Māori and 18 Pacific suicide prevention initiatives have been funded. We've announced as I've said the expansion of Mana Ake into five new district health boards. And yes we have put $200 million in for new and existing mental health and addiction facilities which we continue to work through rolling out and building that capability.Hon Judith Collins: Who is responsible for the failure to deliver on the $1.9 billion committed for mental health in Budget 2019 that has seen only 0.2 percent of the funding spent?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I completely reject the premise of that question.Hon Judith Collins: Is the review into mental health funding—just announced—an admission of her Government's failure to deliver on the mental health promises of 2019?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No and I say again in 2019—in 2019—we announced $1.9 billion across mental health addiction services and homelessness. Ten thousand sessions of care are being provided every month. We're rolling out into schools. We are funding support for our young people. We are providing cognitive behaviour training (CBT) that never used to exist. So I totally reject the member's suggestion that nothing has happened in this space—it is but it takes time to build from nothing.Hon Judith Collins: Is it fair to make tradespeople farmers—or large families even—pay to subsidise someone who can afford a brand new $70000 Tesla Model 3? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Actually on that—as the member will have heard me say earlier in one of my answers—in fact one of our designs around the scheme we have means that we're not just creating incentives around electric vehicles and hybrids but low emissions vehicles. And that means eight out of 10 of the most popular vehicles that are purchased in the second-hand market in New Zealand either attract no fee or attract a discount. So in our mind-set it is supporting New Zealanders to have options around vehicles that are often already popular. Hon Judith Collins: Does she agree with her Minister of Revenue that We've made commitments that we're not making new taxes this term"; if so how is a $3000 tax on a Toyota Hilux not a tax? Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member well knows of course that if you're able to legitimately avoid paying a fee by making a different choice and for instance you've got an incentives regime attached that is not the common definition of a tax. What I would also say is that on that side of the House based on what I've seen according to at least Chris Bishop National was meant to be the party of electric vehicles. If the member is now proposing that they do not wish to have a fee regime attached then that's $1 billion—$1 billion—over 10 years to fund an incentives regime if it does not have a fee regime attached. I'd like to know how the National Party would pay for that."