Heatley Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHeatley Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 03 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19201. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]1.Hon PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei)to the Minister of Finance: How will the Government’s responsible fiscal management help to ensure interest rates will remain lower than they were in the previous economic cycle?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance)on behalf of theMinister of Finance: The Government will continue to responsibly manage its finances by being careful with its spending and focusing on delivering better results to New Zealanders. It is important that we do not allow interest rates to increase to levels seen in 2007 and 2008 when homeowners were paying almost 11 percent on their floating mortgages. That would be irresponsible. So we have stuck to our very tight operating allowances for new spending and revenue initiatives for 2014-15 and that allowance will increase marginally to $1.5 billion in the 2015 Budget. Treasury has confirmed that this is around the upper limit of new spending before it starts to materially affect interest rates and it is well below the enormous $7 billion operating allowance under Labour in 2008.Hon Phil Heatley: What are some of the benefits of the Government’s responsible approach to carefully managing its finances?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: There are a number of benefits. Firstly the Government remains on track to return to fiscal surplus in the current financial year. Secondly the latest Budget projections indicate that net Government debt—and I stress that is excluding the New Zealand Superannuation Fund—will have fallen to around 13 percent of GDP by 2023. In dollar terms that will be about $150 billion less than Treasury projected before our first Budget in 2009. Thirdly we have been able to redirect taxpayers’ money to where it achieves the best results such as the $500 million package for families and children which we announced in Budget 2014. The Government’s responsible fiscal management is delivering many benefits to New Zealanders.Hon Phil Heatley: What other examples—[Interruption] Mr Speaker the crowds are cheering; I cannot hear myself.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Just get on with the question. Otherwise we will move somewhere else.Hon Phil Heatley: What other examples can he provide of the Government’s responsible fiscal management delivering better results for New Zealanders?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: There are many. I could just give one example: my colleague the Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment has released figures today showing the Government’s strong focus on results in tertiary education is delivering for New Zealanders. In 2013 a record 25800 domestic students completed Bachelor’s degrees which is 24 percent higher than those who graduated in 2008. Overall the number of qualifications achieved in 2013 by all students was 20 percent higher than 5 years ago. Also the performance of Māori and Pasifika students is improving dramatically. The number of Māori students who have completed Bachelor’s degrees has increased by 62 percent since 2008 and the number of Pasifika students has increased by 56 percent over that same period. Back in the 2000s the previous Government threw more and more money at tertiary education and the number of people achieving degrees stayed static at the 20000 mark. With a focus on performance and results we are lifting achievement and delivering a more skilled economy.Hon Phil Heatley: My last ever supplementary question. It is a big moment.Mr SPEAKER: Order! It will be a bigger moment if the member leaves the Chamber early.Hon Phil Heatley: What reports has he received of fiscal proposals that are not fully costed and would fail to deliver the benefits to families that their proponents claim?Mr SPEAKER: In so far as there is some ministerial responsibility the Hon Steven Joyce.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I have seen reports including one of a particularly irresponsible proposal that has not been properly costed or accurately explained. A press release issued yesterday claimed the proposal would “end ‘voluntary’ school donations” at a cost of apparently $50 million a year. One of the problems with that is that school donations—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have listened to the question; I have now listened to the answer so far and I cannot see any ministerial responsibility whatsoever.Hon David Parker: How is it fair and fiscally responsible to tax salary and wage earners on every dollar they earn while refusing to tax the capital gains of property speculators?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The member makes an interesting point except I have not seen any proposals that propose to actually tax property and not tax for example people in businesses. In fact the only proposal I have seen on the table proposes to tax 100 percent of productive businesses—Hon David Parker: You’re on the wrong side of this one.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —I do not think so—and only about one-third of houses. Apparently it is designed to tackle housing speculation.