4. Question No. 4—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 4—Finance 4. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Why does he think New Zealand's GDP growth forecasts for this year from both the IMF and the OECD are significantly worse than Australia's?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I don't agree with the assertion in the member's question. I do acknowledge that the impact of COVID-19 has been felt differently across different countries due to the composition of their economies and the measures undertaken by Governments to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and that this will play out in GDP forecasts.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he realise that if New Zealand's growth had fallen only as far as Australia's New Zealanders would be around $4500 richer per household?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I think the member probably needs to be a little careful about the range of projections that are out there in terms of GDP growth or forecasts of declines in GDP. They range wildly about and taking that and then extrapolating it to a particular dollar figure I think is probably taking that a little far.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why then did the New Zealand economy shrink by five times as much as Australia in the first quarter of this year—not a forecast but the reality—despite the fact that both countries shut their borders on the very same day?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The member might be interested to know that international tourism makes up about 20 percent of New Zealand's export income compared with just 10 percent of Australia's exports.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So is he saying that we just have to accept that we will fall further behind Australia?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Absolutely not. That kind of pessimistic thinking might be the member's way of going but not on this side of the House. We're very optimistic about the New Zealand economy. We know that there are sectors that are going to do it tough such as tourism but the Government is there working alongside them.Hon Paul Goldsmith: So rather than deflecting and attacking his critics why doesn't he take responsibility for the poor economic outcomes of his Government's policies?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I reject the premise of that member's question.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Since he has said that tourism is so important why has he not outlined a credible path to reassure New Zealanders about managing the borders effectively?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The Government has done that on a number of occasions in recent times. On this side of the House we know how important those border restrictions have been to our success and that's why you won't hear members on this side of the House advocating for opening them up to China; opening them up for international students; or if we go back over the last few months the record of the National Opposition in making sure that they have changed their position at least once a week on what should happen at the borders. On this side of the House we understand the importance of the border restrictions we have.Hon Chris Hipkins: If the Government had moved with urgency to reopen the border to countries like Australia and China with no quarantine arrangements when we were urged to do so by the Opposition would there be more COVID-19 in New Zealand or less?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Undoubtedly there was the risk that there would be significantly more and I invite members on the other side of the House to take a look around the rest of the world; take a look at Victoria in Australia that is seeing a growth in infections; take a look at the many countries in the world who are seeing some of the highest rates of infection; and recognise that our hard work as a whole country has left us in a privileged position which we must continue to protect.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Yesterday you ruled against what you described as donkey drop questions against the Opposition. That would surely fall into that category because the proposals put forward by the Opposition never called for what has been suggested but further like the rest of New Zealand relied upon the Government actually knowing what it was doing at the border.SPEAKER: And as the member knows the question as to whether such a question is appropriate is one for me. While that might have been a slightly easier bowl than normal I wouldn't consider it totally a donkey drop and it should also be taken in the context of the tone of the questions which preceded it.