3. Question No. 3—Acting Prime MinisterRt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Acting Prime MinisterQuestion No. 3—Acting Prime Minister3. Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Acting Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government's statements and actions?Hon Grant Robertson: That's you.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Acting Prime Minister): The pause was because the same question was asked when it was question two and did not the former Prime Minister see that? The answer is: ditto.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Does he stand by his Government's commitment in the National - ACT coalition document to amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 to limit ministerial decision-making to national security concerns?" and is he confident that all parties in the coalition will be supporting that amendment?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: If that wasn't the case we would not have signed up to it. Hon Grant Robertson: You did!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No I said if that was not the case we would not have signed up to it. Words matter Mr Robertson not this gobbledygook. And the reason we signed up to it was because we could see under the previous administration they had no idea of the importance of international investment and the security of long-term policy which persuades people to come here.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Does he agree with Winston Peters in 2017 that "last year 465000 hectares of land was sold to foreigners. That's up to four times on the year before. We in New Zealand First are going to stop land sales to foreigners and house sales to foreigners who don't come and live here."; if not why not?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Well can I just say that having heard that quote from one of the brightest guys that have ever come to this Parliament it was voiced by not me—a previous Labour Party person said that; I was just borrowing his words. But the point of the matter is that we were looking to ensure that any offshore investment in this country had the national interest and economic benefit of New Zealand—like Ireland like countries like Singapore—first in mind. And with that in mind we welcome overseas investment.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: So why is the Government repealing that test from the Act?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Because like everything the Labour Party put its hands on they didn't interpret it properly.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Does he stand by his Government's commitment to repeal the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Monetary Policy) Amendment Act or does he agree with Shane Jones that the dual mandate brings us "into international best practice area. This is not a journey into the unknown; this is to link up progressive far-sighted Government passing legislation that shows a great similarity to other reserve banks in their mandates which have moved away from this bare sparse barren approach reflective of Don Brash's stewardship of said bank."?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I'm certain that members and those in the gallery and those who are watching on TV are going to enjoy today's conversation because they're hearing so many wise words being repeated back to them—in this case by the Opposition—with respect to National Party members. But we have to move on. The point is this—Hon Grant Robertson: You're out Shane!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No we have to move on in this context. [Interruption] The Minister of Finance is wrestling with something very similar to what's emerged in Australia lately and that is inflation. Unlike what the previous finance Minister said it is not foreign grown; it's home grown and massively so because of their squanderous expenditure. That's why we had to have a talk with the Governor of the Reserve Bank and get him to help us both ways to turn back the tide of inflation and give New Zealanders a chance to go into the future with the hope that we'll have a better cost of living. Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Does he therefore agree with Winston Peters that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Monetary Policy) Amendment Act "makes very important changes to the Reserve Bank Act that will significantly improve monetary policy as it relates to its impact on New Zealanders and the real economy"; if so why is the Government repealing them?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Because at the time that Winston Peters said that he was having regard to an immigration policy which he had persuaded the then Government to adapt. It hardly got there and when the handbrake went off they ran amok and in the last year have brought in 118000 immigrants—that's a massive record for this country—with no infrastructure no houses no health no nothing. And he now wants us to carry on with the same policy. No it's important that we address the circumstances we're in right now left by them.Hon Kieran McAnulty: Point of order Mr Speaker. That was an interesting answer but it wasn't to the question. The question was about the Reserve Bank not about what was talked about.SPEAKER: Well the question was actually about a quote from the Rt Hon Winston Peters from some time ago and what the Acting Prime Minister thought of that quote. I think he answered it fairly concisely.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Does the Acting Prime Minister agree with David Seymour that "you can't trust Winston Peters and a lot of things will be much much harder than they otherwise would." and that Winston Peters is "just a muppet; the problem is he can't work with anyone. The good news is he's going down on flames; he's yesterday's man." and if not why not? Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Because even politically as the Good Book says nobody's beyond redemption. Nobody is for not understanding how helpful a person can be. The people who should be the authority on that are sitting over there because without our open-mindedness and liberality no one would have ever heard of those people ever again. But they hardly got the job and they thought they got there by themselves. And when the handbrake left what a mess they were. My evidence for that is in their first week of being a parliamentary Opposition they asked 6000 questions which kind of suggests in 2020 to 2023 they had no answers.Hon David Seymour: Has the Government ever reversed position—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Hold on. Just a bit of order. The question's being asked. The Hon David Seymour.Hon David Seymour: Thank you Mr Speaker. Has the Government ever reversed policy positions before such as putting on a bonfire the RNZ-TVNZ merger—SPEAKER: Yeah nice question but out of order. So we'll go now to question number four.Hon David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Point of order—better be one.Hon David Seymour: It's a question about Government policy. Surely I can ask about policies—SPEAKER: No you were citing a previous Government's policy and as you know that's not permissible. The member himself would have probably elicited that very ruling from a Speaker in the past."