Robertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 12 March 2015. Volume:703;Page:2202. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement “every Minister believes that the decision that affects them is the one that makes all the difference to the surplus or the deficit”?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes I do because I am sure there are any number of Ministers who believe that their decisions or decisions about their portfolio were responsible for the fact that Treasury announced in the 7 months to January a $77 million surplus the first one in a number of years. Of course it is too early to tell whether that will translate into a surplus for the full year but we are quite happy for any and every Minister to claim credit for the fiscal management that has gone into generating that $77 million surplus.Grant Robertson: Does every Minister have advice from their own department Treasury the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and outside agencies that they are in a position to save New Zealand businesses and workers $350 million as the Minister for ACC had?Hon BILL ENGLISH: All I say to that member is that when those members attacked the manufacturing sector by saying it was in crisis it came right and now that they are attacking the surplus we have got one.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Can I invite the member to repeat his question.Grant Robertson: Do not interrupt him this time Gerry—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I have been gracious enough to the member to allow him to ask his question. I would now be grateful if he would.Grant Robertson: Does every Minister have advice from their own department Treasury the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and outside agencies that they are in a position to save New Zealand businesses and workers $350 million as the Minister for ACC had?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No but I think that a number of Ministers have had advice that protests outside Government agencies over restructuring and excessive wage rises would probably make it harder to get to the surplus and that member has organised such—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The question was answered at the very start.Grant Robertson: Has the Minister of Revenue expressed the belief to him that decisions around the implementation of the child support system will make the difference between surplus and deficit given that the cost of that project had blown out from $30 million to $210 million?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think he may have done and as I think has been discussed both here and in the select committee the child support changes were made a great deal more complex by the select committee. It turns out that the cost of inserting those more complex changes into a very old tax system were high and the Minister took a number of policy decisions to wind them back and reduce the cost and that has helped us get to a surplus.Grant Robertson: How often did the Minister of Revenue report to him about the escalation of $180 million of cost on the implementation of the child support system?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Oh pretty regularly over a period of 2 or 3 years. I mean it is a large complex area of policy where striking a balance between administrative cost and fairness has proven to be very difficult. Every member of this House gets to deal with people who feel like they are on the wrong end of the child support law and I thought that the member might have been a bit more understanding about the reality for many New Zealand families.Grant Robertson: As Minister of Finance has he sought to hold anyone accountable for a blowout of $180 million in the implementation of the child support system?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes. There have been a lot of discussions about clarity and accountability and I think as the Commissioner of Inland Revenue has stated in the last few days ultimately she is accountable.Grant Robertson: If she is accountable what action does the Government intend to take?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well the Government has a lot of confidence actually in the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. It has taken a series of decisions to minimise the cost and actually if the member took the time to understand the issues involved he would probably be asking a different set of questions.Grant Robertson: So can we confirm for the House’s benefit that the Minister of Finance does not believe that he needs to do anything in particular about the fact that there has been a $180 million blowout in the cost of implementing the child support system?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No I would not confirm that because it is not the case. The Government has worked on this issue for 3 if not 4 years trying to deal with the complexity and cost of delivering more fairness for New Zealand families who find themselves in pretty difficult situations and I think that every member of Parliament knows how hard these issues are. It turned out to cost more than was originally expected. A number of decisions were taken to wind that cost back considerably.