1. Economic Outlook—ReportsCHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister of FinanceORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSEconomic Outlook—Reports1. CHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he received on the outlook for the New Zealand economy?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Associate Minister of Finance) on behalf of the Minister of Finance: Yesterday the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) released its consensus forecasts. NZIER reports a lift in growth expectations on the back of a stronger outlook for household spending. Solid investment growth over the next few years is expected reflecting improved business confidence and increased residential construction. Expectations for employment growth over 4 years have been revised up and forecast unemployment revised down. Growth is expected to average 2.7 percent over 4 years broadly in line with recent forecasts from Treasury and the Reserve Bank.Chris Bishop: What reports has he received that show how solid momentum in the economy in the first half of 2016 is helping to deliver more jobs and higher wages for New Zealand families?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Treasury recently published its Monthly Economic Indicators report for May which says: The economy appears to have maintained solid momentum over the first half of the year. … Robust real wages along with high migration and tourism inflows supported retail spending in the March quarter. … On balance the economy appears to be doing slightly better so far this year than anticipated in the Budget update." Treasury also reports lifts in business confidence property expectations and employment and investment intentions among businesses.Chris Bishop: How is continuing job growth in particular the growth in full-time employment combined with low cost of living increases helping families get ahead?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Monthly Economic Indicators reports a 1.2 percent increase in employment in the March quarter alone. That is 28000 additional jobs and 75 percent of this job growth was in full-time employment. Construction industry employment growth is being increasingly driven by Auckland as the residential component of the Canterbury rebuild levels off and Auckland building activity increases. Better job prospects are encouraging more people to look for work leading to the labour force expanding a record 1.5 percent in the quarter. Inflation of 0.4 percent is supporting robust real wage growth meaning higher spending power for households and families.Chris Bishop: Supplementary question Mr Speaker.Hon Members: Again?Mr SPEAKER: Supplementary question Chris Bishop.Chris Bishop: That is right there is more—there is more. What steps is the Government taking to support growth investment and employment? Hon PAULA BENNETT: The Government does not create jobs of course; businesses do. What the Government can do is create an environment where businesses have the confidence to invest another dollar and employ another person. The Government has taken many steps to support growth investment and jobs including reducing income taxes to increase incentives to work reducing ACC levies by around $2 billion since 2012 investing in new public infrastructure and diversifying our exports by negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership alongside agreements with Malaysia Hong Kong and Korea.David Seymour: If cutting taxes has previously been found to increase the incentives for work savings and investment does the Government have any plans to repeat that?Hon PAULA BENNETT: As the member knows there were not any in 2016 and he has got a few more sleeps to wait until Budget 2017 to have the answer to that.Grant Robertson: How is Westpac bank wrong when it describes the Budget as a "Fiscal mirage" saying that "it's clear that the improvement in the fiscal outlook has largely come from the economic projections … rather than [any] policy"?Hon PAULA BENNETT: As I just said in answers to the primary question when you are seeing growth that is coming out through the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research of 2.7 percent—Treasury forecasting 2.9 percent—on the world stage I think most people would see that as a positive story. That is why we disagree."