4. Question No. 4—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 4—Finance4. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: What priority does he give to further opening up the economy to save jobs?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): My highest priority is the saving and creation of jobs. This includes by safely opening up the economy in a way that doesn't put the health gains won by all New Zealanders at risk if there were to be another outbreak of COVID-19 that would force us to move back up alert levels.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he agree with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters that we need to come out of level 2 now to further open up the economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I have great respect for the Deputy Prime Minister the Rt Hon Winston Peters but on this matter we disagree.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he prefer the Prime Minister's view that she explained yesterday that she takes her advice from Ashley Bloomfield about how to come out of level 2 and to open up the economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: In my experience it is always good to prefer the view of the Prime Minister or indeed the leader of the party the member might happen to be in whoever that might be.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he agree with the proposition that while we trust Ashley Bloomfield to look after our health we don't necessarily want him running our economy?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The Government has said from day one that the very best recipe for the recovery of the New Zealand economy has been a strong public health response. That has been borne out by what has happened in New Zealand. We look broadly at all of the things that New Zealanders would want us to when we make consideration about moving through alert levels and I believe we've taken a responsible path.Hon Paul Goldsmith: How many extra jobs will be lost each week we remain in level 2 as opposed to being in level 1?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The member will be aware that a number of different calculations have been made by both the Reserve Bank and Treasury. The Reserve Bank have estimated that when we were in level 3 GDP was going to be reduced by about 19 percent then when we went to level 2 it would be by about 8.8 percent and then under level 1 3.8 percent. So quite clearly the difference between level 3 and level 2 is very significant in terms of GDP and indeed jobs. The difference between level 2 and level 1—less of a gap between those two levels but I don't obviously have those specific numbers here.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Well isn't it at a time when we're losing more than a thousand jobs a day—isn't it essential for him to at least make an attempt to quantify the difference between job losses at level 2 and level 1?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The premise of that member's question is completely incorrect.Hon Paul Goldsmith: I'm not sure quite how it is. Does he acknowledge the concerns of restructuring specialist Grant Graham about waiting further weeks to reopen the economy knowing that the cost will not only be extreme but unjustifiable."?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Again obviously I don't agree with the premise of that question. We have taken a responsible and measured path to lead New Zealand through a one-in-100-year crisis. The idea that we would yo-yo back up levels would have a huge impact on the New Zealand economy. We're making good progress much better progress than many other countries around the world and we will continue to take all of the expert advice into account and make decisions in the best interests of New Zealanders."