2. Prime Minister—Tax Increases Three-strikes Legislation Prison Population and University FundingHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime MinisterPrime Minister—Tax Increases Three-strikes Legislation Prison Population and University Funding2. Hon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's policies and actions?Hon Gerry Brownlee: Ah! The real Prime Minister.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Gerry; on behalf of the Prime Minister yes.Hon Paula Bennett: As petrol prices rise at what price per litre will her Government reconsider their plans to hike petrol excise taxes and impose a new Auckland regional fuel tax?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The decisions that we've made around funding future transport projects are very much in line with what previous Governments have done when they've needed to see more investment—for example between January and June 2015 petrol prices increased by 40c a litre and the then Minister went ahead with an excise increase in July.Hon Paula Bennett: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. SPEAKER: Well I am going to ask the Minister to answer the question.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: It is the belief—[Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! I don't need the support of the backbench down there.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: It is the belief of this Government that we need to make significant investments in our transport infrastructure. We will be funding that through the National Land Transport Fund and through the levy increases associated with that as previous Governments have done.Hon Paula Bennett: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was quite clear: at what price per litre will her Government reconsider their plans and that still wasn't answered.SPEAKER: I think it was certainly addressed even if the member is not satisfied with the answer.Hon Paula Bennett: As petrol prices rise at what price per litre will her Government reconsider their plans to hike petrol excise taxes?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: We have a plan to invest in transport infrastructure funded as it is normally done through the fuel excise levy. We have no plans to change that.Hon Paula Bennett: How much will families' cost of living go up thanks to this Government's increases to fuel excise taxes GST on online goods additional tax on mum and dad rental owners and the new regional fuel tax?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I don't have that information to hand but what I do know is that under our Families Package 384000 families will be better off by $75 per week.Hon Paula Bennett: Is it fair for an Auckland family to pay $700 per year more to fill up their car because of this Government's new taxes?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I reject the premise in the member's question. We know from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment's estimates that they're talking about maybe an extra $250 a year on a family. We know that for many of those families they will be far better off under the Labour-led Government's Families Package. I would also say to the member that the issues that have arisen around transport in New Zealand didn't just happen in the last seven months; they happened over the last nine years.Hon Paula Bennett: Does she believe that prisoners who commit three serious violent offences should receive the maximum sentence without parole for their third offence?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The three-strikes law that the member is referring to is under consideration by this Government. When it was passed the previous Government was warned that gimmicky policies like that don't actually help reduce the crime rate.Hon Paula Bennett: Did her Minister of Justice take a paper to Cabinet suggesting repealing the three-strikes regime and that the whole Cabinet including her New Zealand First Ministers agreed to progress the work?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I don't have that information to hand. If the member chooses to put down a question in writing I'll be able to answer that.Hon Paula Bennett: So who was right then: her Minister of Justice who said that New Zealand First were there when Cabinet made the decision to work on repealing three strikes and that it's a Cabinet decision" or her Deputy Prime Minister who said they were "yet to discuss the issue"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I said in my previous answer I don't have the specific details of that. What I do know is that on this side of the House we're committed to making sure that while New Zealanders stay safe we don't continue to fill up our prisons ever more and more. We can do better than that when it comes to justice.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker for consistency why didn't you stop the member answering once he said he had no information on the question?SPEAKER: Thank you Mr Brownlee. Is there a further question?Hon Paula Bennett: So what percentage of the prison population is made up of gang members?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: That's a matter of very specific detail. I invite the member to put the question down to the Minister of Corrections or the Minister of Justice.Hon Paula Bennett: So does the Prime Minister expect an increase in the number of gang members imprisoned given her Government announced 700 new police supposedly to combat gangs and how does that reconcile with trying to lower the prison population?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What that is about is a mixture of policing. We want to make sure that we have community policing that is preventing crime and we want to make sure that we crack down on gangs. I'm really interested that the previous Government's party doesn't actually seem to have a plan to reduce the prison population. On this side of the House we don't think it works. And I remind the member of her former colleague Bill English who said that prisons are a moral and fiscal failure. Perhaps she'd like to call him back in.Hon Paula Bennett: Why did Budget 2018 not provide any funding for universities in New Zealand to even keep up with inflation for the first time in two decades?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: In this Budget the priority for this side of the House in education was early childhood education which got the first universal funding increase in a decade and our priority was schools. We continue to support the tertiary sector.Hon Paula Bennett: How many redundancies is she expecting from universities in light of them getting a zero increase in funding for the first time in over a decade?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The balance sheets of our universities are excellent. They are all in surplus bar one and I'm sure they'll be able to continue to operate at a very high level."