3. Economy—Business Confidence Cost of Living Employment and GDPHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister of FinanceEconomy—Business Confidence Cost of Living Employment and GDP3. Hon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all of the Government's policies statements and actions in relation to the New Zealand economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes when understood in their context—in particular my statements about the importance of all New Zealanders getting a fair share of economic growth including our nurses midwives and healthcare assistants who today agreed to a settlement that delivers the biggest pay increases nurses have seen in a decade and will put 500 more nurses in our hospitals.Hon Amy Adams: Does he agree with the Prime Minister when she characterised plummeting business confidence as just a matter of perception" and said that real indicators are what matters?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Of course I agree with the Prime Minister and as I've said many times in this House when you look back at Governments that have had the Labour Party at the centre of them those same business confidence surveys have shown pessimism yet the economy has kept growing—3.2 percent on average the last time Labour was in Government. I also agree with the Prime Minister that we will keep working with and listening to business and making sure that we have an economy that's delivering higher wages and better jobs.Hon Amy Adams: Does he consider the rate of new job creation which has halved under this Government or the number of unemployed which has increased by 4000 people over the last quarter to be real economic indicators?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As a former Minister of Finance said it's very challenging to look at quarterly figures on their own. Let's just pick out that unemployment number: 4.8 percent when we came into Government; 4.5 percent now—heading in the right direction because we've got a Government that's actually serious about training and skills and how we're going to create sustainable jobs.Hon Amy Adams: Does he consider that our rate of GDP growth which even Treasury now indicate is weakening and GDP per capita which is at its lowest level since 2012 to be real economic indicators?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The real economic indicators of the consensus forecast for the economy released in July are that we will achieve growth of around 3 percent over the forecast period. There will be some challenges in our transition away from an economy built on population growth and speculation in housing to a more productive and sustainable economy. That's the challenge the member's party left us. We're getting on with addressing it.Hon Amy Adams: Does he consider higher costs of living at a time when wages are rising more slowly than the Consumers Price Index to be a real economic indicator?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I absolutely reject the member's point about wage growth. She's picking out one particular stat but if we actually look at the quarterly economic survey we'll find that wage growth is in fact very solid and well above inflation. But actually one of the first things this Government did was make sure that we redirected untargeted unfocused tax cuts to low and middle income families so they've got more money to meet their cost of living.Hon Amy Adams: Why is he asleep at the wheel while so many of the real economic—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will start that question again.Hon Amy Adams: Why is he refusing to acknowledge or take any responsibility for the fact that so many of the real economic indicators that this Government says it cares about are clearly showing signs that our economy is turning in the wrong direction and that growth is stagnating?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I would note that the slowdown in GDP growth actually began at the beginning of 2017 so the member needs to understand that these are long-run trends. What this Government has that the last Government didn't is a plan to do something about that: to be a more productive economy with more investment in research and development to actually start to transition to the effects of climate change and to deliver to New Zealanders real wage growth."