Tabuteau Fletcher: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTabuteau Fletcher: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 15 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7291. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First) to the Minister of Finance: What is the current value of the New Zealand Super Fund?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): As at 31 August 2015 the value of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund is $28.8 billion.Fletcher Tabuteau: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have information prepared by the Parliamentary Library that contradicts—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a point of order. If the member now—[Interruption] If the member seeks leave to table it I will consider it.Fletcher Tabuteau: I seek leave to table information prepared by the Parliamentary Library—Mr SPEAKER: Order! On this occasion I will allow the member to table the information. Are there further supplementary questions? [Interruption] Oh sorry. Yes leave was sought. Is there any objection to that document being tabled? There is not. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Fletcher Tabuteau: Is he aware that if he had continued capital contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund it would now be worth $47.8 billion—$18.2 billion more than it is now?Hon BILL ENGLISH: In retrospect that is possible. It is also possible that if we had trebled the contributions it would be worth over $100 billion. If we could have trebled them why could we not have borrowed 10 times the required contribution and then it may have been worth over $1000 billion. I mean there is just no end to that calculation and we do not waste our time on it.Fletcher Tabuteau: Is the Minister not ashamed that of the $14.5 billion of capital contributions made to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund the National Government is responsible for less than 2 percent of that; if not why not?Hon BILL ENGLISH: In answer to the member’s first question no. The reason is simply this: the New Zealand Superannuation Fund was set up with the intention that surplus cash—of which there was quite a lot in the mid-2000s actually—would be paid into it; in that case mainly to protect it from the Labour Party caucus. But actually we do not have surplus cash. Even the $400 million surplus announced yesterday does not actually give us surplus cash to put into the fund.Fletcher Tabuteau: What does he believe is better for the country: potentially borrowing to pay for $1.5 billion worth of tax cuts in an election year or putting that money into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund which would return $100 million in interest by 2020?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The tax package was fiscally neutral; in fact it was probably fiscally positive actually. In respect of the second issue I mean this Government simply does not believe that it is prudent to borrow money to invest in overseas share markets. Households do not do it very few businesses do it except under particular circumstances and we do not intend to do it. It is easy to say that looking back when the New Zealand Superannuation Fund has made very high returns but the likelihood is that over its lifetime half the time it is going to make very low or negative returns. In that case the member would be asking a different question: why did the Government borrow money and invest it in the crazy casino of offshore equity markets full of corrupt Chinese? [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The member wants to ask a supplementary question; I ask that Ron Mark control himself. [Interruption] Order! I will not be calling for order again. I am asking Fletcher Tabuteau to ask his supplementary question. I will not put up with the level of interjection coming from my left.Fletcher Tabuteau: Would the Minister prefer to generate a surplus to: a pay down our very high nominal net debt; b restart contributions to the neglected Superannuation Fund; or c pay $1.5 billion for an election-year bribe?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I am pleased to see that the member understands two of our fiscal objectives and those are to pay down debt and to start contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The Government has allowed for the opportunity for moderate tax reductions and we remain fixed to that policy.