3. Question No. 3—FinanceNANCY LU (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 3—Finance3. NANCY LU (National) to the Minister of Finance: What impending announcements is she planning on the Budget?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): Tomorrow at 2 p.m. I will be announcing the Budget itself. Alongside my Budget speech there are a number of documents that provide information on the Budget ranging from high-level summaries to very detailed line-by-line descriptions of changes to appropriations. These include the Estimates documents the summary of initiatives Treasury's Budget Economic and Fiscal Update the Fiscal Strategy Report the child poverty report and the Budget At a Glance pamphlet. Compared to recent years there will be less verbiage fewer pretty pictures and a lot more substance.Nancy Lu: What new spending initiatives will be in the Budget?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: That will be revealed tomorrow but I should point out to members that this year's Budget will look quite different from those in the recent past. Recent Budgets—[Interruption] They're all very excited today; they're looking forward to tomorrow as much as we are. Recent Budgets have tended to be long lists of spending increases. Tomorrow's Budget will include new targeted discretionary spending but it will also contain lots of savings lots of reprioritisation and—spoiler alert—it will contain tax relief.Nancy Lu: How will the Government pay for these measures?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: All the elements I just mentioned—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Can we just calm it slightly. At least let a start be made before there's the usual objection to the content of the answer.Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Mr Speaker this all bodes very well for tomorrow. All of the elements I just mentioned—new discretionary spending savings reprioritisation and tax relief—are contained within the Budget operating allowance. Members may recall that the previous Government set an operating allowance of $3.5 billion for Budget 2024. Hon Dr Megan Woods: What's your operating allowance?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: We will do a lot better than that member Woods. I said in the Budget Policy Statement in March that the operating allowance for Budget 2024 will be less than $3.5 billion and it will be.Nancy Lu: What commentary has she seen on tomorrow's Budget?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I've seen so much commentary on the Budget. But I did have my attention particularly drawn to one commentor's explanation of why tax relief will take demand out of the economy and reduce inflationary pressure. That commentator said One thing [that] we know is that with tax cuts and the slowing economy there will be less money circulating". The commentator went on to say "As it will be the better-off who will get more money from tax cuts"—apparently—"the likelihood is much of that money will be spent on overseas trips so won't be spent in our economy." This commentator went on to say "There is always a contingency built in called an operating allowance which is for emergencies." And to justify New Zealand's ballooning public debt this commentator said "Sometimes it's necessary to borrow money; it took the United Kingdom sixty years to pay for World War Two and imagine how long Ukraine will be paying off the cost of defending themselves against Russia." Members opposite should probably know all of this came from the commentator the writer of the Ōhāriu newsletter Greg O'Connor.SPEAKER: Just before we go any further right at the start of this parliamentary year I made it very clear that it was inappropriate for Government to use question time to attack either the Opposition or other MPs. That was a very serious transgression—don't do it again.Hon Members: Aww!SPEAKER: That's a severe telling off at this stage. The Hon Marama Davidson.Hon Dr Megan Woods: We beat you fair and square Nicola.SPEAKER: And we're silent; we're all quiet.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Who made that rule?SPEAKER: I just did.Rt Hon Winston Peters: No you can't.SPEAKER: I just can.Rt Hon Winston Peters: You're Parliament's man.SPEAKER: That's right.Rt Hon Winston Peters: No not your own man—SPEAKER: No no—Rt Hon Winston Peters: —you're Parliament's man.SPEAKER: —that's right and I'm thinking about the whole of Parliament.Hon Nicola Willis: Point of order Mr Speaker. Look I think members may have misjudged that I was making it up; I seek leave to table the document.SPEAKER: No no. The Hon Marama Davidson.Hon Marama Davidson: Will the pending announcements she is planning on the Budget ensure the June 2024 child poverty target is met?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: There will be a child poverty report that will report against those targets and the member will be able to read it tomorrow.Hon Marama Davidson: Does she accept advice from the Ministry of Social Development that "Increases in public housing supply need to be at a very large scale to result in significant movement of child poverty rates." and if so can we expect to see a large increase in the Kāinga Ora build programme?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Well I'd make two comments. The first is I think it would be a bit rich for the member to expect that in six months of Government we would then take responsibility for six years of actions which have contributed to the levels of child poverty today. The second comment I would make is this: when it comes to housing she was a member of a Government that oversaw a quadrupling in the State house waiting list she was the Minister of homelessness while thousands of children went to bed each night in a motel room and it all got worse on their watch. So this side of the House will not be lectured by that member and her colleagues about how to deliver housing for children."