Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:652;Page:1222] 
2.  
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
 on behalf of the  
Prime Minister 
: Yes and I am surprised to see the Leader of the Opposition questioning the confidence in the Ministers in the House but when our Ministers are out of the House he tries to gatecrash their photo opportunities because it is the only way he can get in the paper. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why should the Prime Minister or the country have any confidence in the Minister of Housing who in yesterday’s so-called stimulus package claimed to be adding 69 extra to an existing 450 State housing starts when in fact if the Minister looks at the 2008/09 appropriations he will see the appropriation granted was for 650 houses a figure that shows that the Minister is actually slashing State housing starts compared with the Budget appropriation by 131 and how does he justify such deliberate deceit? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The last part of that question was very marginal. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The country showed that it had no confidence in a Government that announced that it was going to complete 650 houses when all the way through it knew that it would never get to that target. This Government is being honest about how many houses can be completed. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I seek leave of the House to table the 2008-09 estimates document which shows that the Cabinet decision— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: How many did you build? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I think it is against the Standing Orders for somebody to interject on a point of order and that member has done it quite frequently. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Honourable Leader of the Opposition is not helping. He is meant to be making his point of order. I have silenced the House. He should please make his point of order. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: I seek leave of the House to table the 2008-09 estimates which show that the Cabinet’s decision for the 2008-09 year was for a net increase of 650 State housing units; that shows that the Minister is actually slashing the number of State houses being built or acquired. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I wonder whether this is a good opportunity to ask you to consider this. The Leader of the Opposition is trying to table documents that have long been tabled. He should know that the appropriations and the Budget are tabled each year. What is the point of taking up the House’s time tabling something that has already been tabled? Does the Leader of the Opposition not realise that? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member makes a very good point. The purpose of tabling documents is to make available material that is not otherwise available to members. Of course that document was available. 
Hon Phil Heatley 
: I seek leave to table the statement of intent which came out several months after that Cabinet decision from Housing New Zealand requesting that the Labour Government cut its target to 530 net State houses because it did not have the funding to acquire them. That is an official document— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I was very tolerant in how long I allowed the Minister to describe that document—having just responded to a point of order by his ministerial colleague the Hon Rodney Hide—and the Minister should know that that document is already a parliamentary document and is readily available. I am not prepared to put the question for leave. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Could I just be clear on this? You refused to allow the member to seek leave. I thought he was seeking leave to table a document that shows that even under the Housing New Zealand Corporation more housing starts were planned under Labour than the total announced yesterday. We would be very happy for that document to be tabled. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The reason I am not prepared to put that seeking of leave to the House is that under the Standing Orders that kind of document is not meant to be tabled in the House because it is already available to members. That is why I did not accept the member’s seeking of leave for that purpose. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not want to be pedantic but I thought you were obligated when a member—probably especially when a Minister—seeks leave to table a document to put that leave to the House. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: The previous report of the Standing Orders Committee drew this matter to the attention of members and strongly recommended that members should refrain from seeking to table things like answers to oral questions or written questions etc. which used to happen some dozens of times a day under the previous Government from the then Opposition. I think it would be helpful if members followed that advice. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I appreciate the points made by both honourable members. I will take advice on that issue and if in fact I have erred today I will make it clear to the House that although members can seek leave when they should not if they do seek leave then I should put that to the House. In fact I will reverse my position; I will put to the House the member’s seeking of leave. Is there any objection to the document described by the Minister of Housing being tabled? There is no objection. Thank you. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Can the Minister confirm that the document that has just been tabled shows that the number of houses to be built under the Budget was higher than the number of houses the Minister claims he is increasing housing starts to and that this in fact constitutes not a stimulus for job growth but a reduction in housing starts for the Housing New Zealand Corporation? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: If the member spent more time doing his homework and less time trying to get into the reflected glory of our successful Cabinet Ministers and their photo opportunities then he would know that the previous Government actually funded only 450 new houses despite the fact that it announced 650. That is why we had to announce yesterday a further sum of tens of millions of dollars in order to lift the number of State houses that will be completed this year. There is a difference between an announcement and doing it. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why would the country have confidence in the Minister for Infrastructure when he discloses that the entire infrastructure package announced yesterday might keep 2000 people in their jobs when 10000 jobs have been lost in the previous 3 months alone and when Treasury estimates demonstrate that under existing Government policy settings New Zealand will lose 1000 jobs a week—each and every week this year? Does that not show that this infrastructure package is hopelessly inadequate to address that problem? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Prime Minister does have confidence in the Minister for Infrastructure as can this country because this country and the Prime Minister know there will be more announcements and more infrastructure projects coming online over the next 2 or 3 years. They will be focused on productive investment that is designed to lift our long-term economic capacity. We do not believe that any Government programme will be able to prevent a significant rise in unemployment. That member should know that because under the previous Government unemployment started rising. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Was that an admission by the Prime Minister that he has given up and that he accepts that those Treasury estimates are right and we will see unemployment—already 9.6 percent for Maori workers—at around 7 percent? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government hopes that unemployment will not reach those levels but it understands that it cannot turn back the tide of a recession. We need to do two things: protect people from the sharpest edges of recession and prepare this economy to grow again. The only thing that will help people who lose their jobs in the next few months will be enough confidence among businesses to invest in new jobs to replace the ones that are lost. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why should the country have confidence in the Minister of Finance when his action before Christmas in stripping three-quarters of a billion dollars out of the pockets of low and middle income families when they were promised those tax cuts in legislation is totally against the advice given by the chief economist of Moody’s Mark Zandi who said that those sorts of tax cuts are exactly the sorts of cost-effective measures needed to stimulate the economy and job growth rather than the policies that this National Government has pursued instead? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The country showed its confidence in the National Government and its Cabinet by voting us in in the last election on a tax package we campaigned on. People can look forward to tax cuts on 1 April particularly the people on low and middle incomes who will benefit most from the package. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Why should the country have confidence in the Prime Minister when his policy of drip-feeding minor announcements in response to the economic crisis is exactly the opposite of what the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund is in fact recommending and is contradicted by the United States Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who said this week: “We believe that the policy response has to be comprehensive and forceful. There is more risk and greater cost in gradualism than in aggressive action.”; clearly we are getting gradualism caution and great conservatism? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: There are two reasons why the country can have confidence. The first is that in New Zealand fortunately we are not trying to deal with a collapsing financial system which Secretary Geithner is trying to deal with—and I must say a bit unsuccessfully it looks at the moment— 
Hon Member 
: He’s got a Yale PhD. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: He has a John F Kennedy School of Government diploma. The second reason the country can have confidence is that as I have explained to the House a number of times New Zealand has significant fiscal stimulus in place now comparable to Australia and the US. That is one reason why people feel they have more cash in their pockets and they are wondering when the recession is going to hit them. They have low interest rates tax cuts and lower petrol prices putting cash in their pockets.