4. Economy—Public DebtHon STEVEN JOYCE (National) to the Minister of FinanceEconomy—Public Debt4. Hon STEVEN JOYCE (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his reported quote of 7 February 2018 New Zealand is a country that always has to be aware of global shocks. It's why we keep our public debt lower than other countries"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I stand by my actual statement which is just slightly different. It is "New Zealand is a country that always has to be aware of external shocks. It's why we keep our public debt lower than a lot of other countries." That is why the Government is committed to reducing net core Crown debt to 20 percent of GDP by 2022 in line with our Budget responsibility rules.Hon Steven Joyce: Does the finance Minister agree with these statements and I quote "future generations of New Zealanders are again being saddled by a National Government with huge levels of debt" and and I quote "Debt has skyrocketed under National"?SPEAKER: Order! Neither of those are areas of the Minister's responsibility.Hon Steven Joyce: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just asked the Minister if he agreed with those particular statements and he is welcome to agree or disagree with them as the Minister of Finance.SPEAKER: Well he might agree or he might not agree and he might even want to answer the question but he does not have responsibility for it. Responsibility for ballooning net debt levels under National as the member quoted is certainly not an area that this Minister of Finance has responsibility for.Hon Steven Joyce: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a new point of order about the same question and that is in relation to whether members are accountable once they become Ministers for what they have said in Hansard when they were previously members of Parliament.SPEAKER: The answer to that is no.Hon Steven Joyce: Why is he intending to increase our Government debt to $70 billion instead of reducing it to $56 billion given his statement that the low level of public debt is a really important part of the New Zealand economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What we are doing is measuring debt the same way that the previous Government did and we're actually reducing that as a percentage of GDP over the five years we are in office. We have a slower debt repayment track because we have to address the failures of the previous Government to invest in critical infrastructure and social services.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can I ask the finance Minister whether he or his Government have any intention of exploding the debt by 800 percent as happened the last time the Government changed?SPEAKER: Order! What I'm going to do is I'm going to help the member by deleting the last phrase which would make it a question within order and asking the—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I'll rephrase it.SPEAKER: No. I think we're safer going this way.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Absolutely not. This Government is committed to a responsible debt repayment track. What we are not going to do is see debt grow by $50 billion while we ended up as a country with the worst homelessness in the OECD.Hon Steven Joyce: With the introduction by the Deputy Prime Minister of the previous Government's record can the member confirm that the statements he made—SPEAKER: No! Order! I very specifically ruled that out. I think the member heard me.Hon Steven Joyce: A different supplementary then Mr Speaker. Does he stand by his statement "When you look at the fundamentals of global economic growth and indeed of the New Zealand economy I am reasonably reassured by that. Essentially the low level of public debt is a really important part of it." and can he reconcile that statement last week with the statements just made by both himself and the Deputy Prime Minister?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I can very easily reconcile that. We have a debt repayment track that is responsible but also allows us to finally get on with building some houses addressing the housing crisis and dealing with the liabilities that that Minister left the country.Hon Steven Joyce: Can he confirm that just a few months ago he used to think debt was too high and now he thinks our debt is low and that's a positive thing and he's still going to increase debt anyway; and because of his three changing positions on debt does he wonder why people are learning not to take him seriously?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I know that member is distracted today by his own ambition but what I can say to him is that since March last year I have consistently been talking about reducing debt as a percentage of GDP the same measure that member used and in the meantime this Government won't let social services run down won't create an infrastructure deficit and we'll actually use that debt to build some houses."