5. Question No. 5—FinanceNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 5—Finance5. NICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Finance: Has he been instructed by the Prime Minister to look through the things he has on his agenda to ask himself whether either from a spending perspective and investment perspective or just from a focus perspective those are things that we should be prioritising at this point in time"; if so what initiatives if any has he identified should no longer be prioritised? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes the Prime Minister has indeed asked that of all Ministers to consider over the summer period these matters. Given the beautiful Wellington day that we have today which indicated summer has started I have identified some areas that I won't be prioritising. I won't be prioritising selling off State houses I won't be prioritising cutting public services or under-investing in hospitals or schools I won't be prioritising not paying nurses and teachers what they deserve and I won't be prioritising a tax cut for the wealthiest New Zealanders. Nicola Willis: Does he think the Government's planned multimillion-dollar merger of Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand should be prioritised while Kiwis are being squeezed by a cost of living crisis? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: This Government is very proud of what we have done to support New Zealanders through the cost of living pressures that they're facing such as lifting benefits in 2020 2021 and 2022 lifting the family tax credit lifting childcare support and providing the cost of living payment. We are able to do those things and also invest in other things as well. Nicola Willis: So can he just confirm for the House that the TVNZ-RNZ merger is on the chopping block—it's gone? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I can confirm no such thing but what really interests me—what really interests me—is that members across the House somehow seem to think that we can go into the future with public broadcasting with no funding whatsoever. But actually come to think of it that's what they did for Radio New Zealand when they were in office. Nicola Willis: Does he think his proposal to impose a new jobs tax on every worker to pay for a gold-plated unemployment scheme will meet the Prime Minister's new test or is the income insurance scheme set for the chop too? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The member's characterisation of the New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme is completely wildly inaccurate and she might like to have a chat to Gerry Brownlee and others who were part of a Government that introduced almost exactly the same payment for people in the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes. Nicola Willis: Does the Minister think the jobs tax will survive the summer or is the Prime Minister after it? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The member is talking about something that doesn't exist. The New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme—[Interruption] Well here we go. Everything's a tax over there except the tax cut that they wanted to give to the highest-income New Zealanders. On this side of the House we will always look for ways to support New Zealanders to get through a cost of living crisis. We actually care about what happens to New Zealanders when they lose their jobs unlike that lot over there. Nicola Willis: When did the Prime Minister first instruct him to do a line-by-line initiative-by-initiative review and was it before or after Minister Wood told The AM Show last week that he had not been asked to do anything of the sort? Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The Prime Minister issues quite a few instructions and I have in front of me here the Budget 2021 savings initiatives and the Budget 2022 savings initiatives. We take very seriously our job as responsible fiscal managers and every day of the week we look to see what savings and reprioritisations we can make."