5. Question No. 5—FinanceHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 5—Finance5. Hon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana) to the Minister of Finance: Does she stand by her statement that The Budget we delivered in May was a careful combination of investment in frontline services whilst also continuing to do our bit to keep inflation down"; if so did she refuse any requests of funding for additional frontline services?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): In answer to the first part of the question: yes; and to the second point: there were some proposals from front-line agencies mostly for capital expenditure that were not progressed in Budget 2024. By definition Budgets are about prioritising; they are not about funding everything an agency or Minister might propose. That would be fiscally irresponsible in the extreme. To put it into context for members: the last Labour government and the finance Minister thereof—known I would say for its excessive spending—even it refused some requests of funding for additional front-line services.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Did she decline a request for funding from Health New Zealand Treasury or the Minister of Health for front-line health services such as nurses?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: I make two points. The first is this: the decision that our Cabinet made was to put $1.4 billion in additional funding into Health New Zealand for this fiscal year with additional funding every year thereafter totalling more than $16 billion over three Budgets. I would note that in coming to that figure of $1.4 billion we had reference to the National Party fiscal plan but also we did use as a comparison the Labour Party fiscal plan which judged that—SPEAKER: No no—that's enough.Hon NICOLA WILLIS: —$1.4 billion was the right amount.SPEAKER: No that's enough. That sort of stuff can't keep on happening. The Government talks about its own programme. You can make historical comparisons but not to that extent.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Does she agree with advice to Cabinet that Health New Zealand are applying "controls to stem the overspending in areas such as recruitment." and does this hiring freeze cover front-line health workers like nurses?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: We have record numbers of nurses employed in our health system right now. That is the right thing and that is why we have put more funding in and that is to support our target to not only just put more money in like the last Government did but to actually drive better health outcomes. If that member wants to get up on this House and defend hiring hundreds and thousands more health bureaucrats while waiting lists got longer she's welcome to do so.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Thank you Mr Speaker. Does she agree with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation who said "At absolute best this is 'treading water' budget – barely keeping the system's head above the surface. And the water level is rising."; or rather that doctors and nurses on the front line are wrong?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: No I don't agree with that because our Government chose to put a record amount of additional funding into the health system because we value front-line health services. In fact so determined were we to give Health New Zealand confidence about rising budgets into the future that we made pre-commitments against next year's Budget and the Budget after that as well.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Will she guarantee that the additional $1.4 billion of savings she wants will not come at the cost of front-line services to patients given when adjusted for inflation total operating health expenditure only increased by 0.4 percent in her Budget?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: A few facts. The first is that that is the expectation that has been outlined by the Minister of Health in his letter of expectation to the Commissioner in terms of front-line services not being impacted. Second I would note that the latest OECD data shows New Zealand's health spending as a share of GDP is well above the OECD average; our spending per capita is also above the OECD average. In terms of inflation I would invite the member to reflect on the fact that inflation forecasts have actually eased since she put together a fiscal plan with Labour and the Budget funding for Health New Zealand cost pressures is higher than it would be if the numbers were recalculated today.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Why did her Budget barely provide enough to keep the lights on in Health insufficient funding to achieve at least four of the Government's five health targets but prioritised a $2.9 billion tax break for landlords?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Our Budget was very deliberate in the funding of core priorities because our priorities are the same priorities as New Zealanders. They didn't want money going into wasteful projects like they did under the last Government—they wanted it going into front-line health services education services law and order and that is where we directed precious additional dollars. It is fair to ask that member to depart from her high horse when she campaigned on exactly the same amount of funding for Health New Zealand as this Government delivered. [Interruption]SPEAKER: You got a supplementary?"