Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I feel I should tell a joke or talk about a funny thing happening on the way to the House! But look it's a pleasure to talk about regional economic development and economic development more generally because it's such an important part of firstly the COVID issues but also matters relating to the important role that the Government can play in making sure that our regions thrive economically socially and culturally. I have three questions for the Minister that I'm sure the Minister in the chair the Hon Kris Faafoi will diligently jot down and inform the Minister of Regional Economic Development—when he gets here—that these are vital questions.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): You can't say that—you can't say that.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: So I shall pause for effect before I give the Minister the opportunity to answer these questions. The first question is one borne out of ignorance and it—Dr Duncan Webb: Ha!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Well as the new spokesperson for regional economic development—it's not an admission members of Parliament make that often. I'm careful not to make the same mistakes—rather not the same mistakes but fall into the same trap that those wanting to quiz Kelvin Davis before the dinner break did where every single question was answered with That's not my responsibility."So my first question is actually about the relationship between the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) and the recently announced COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund and whether or not the Minister in the chair actually has responsibility for the $3 billion or at least an input into it because we've seen a number of announcements made recently that relate to the COVID recovery fund but look very much in all respects like the announcements that we've seen out of the PGF. So that's the first question. The second question relates to—and I refer the Minister to the plethora of Provincial Growth Fund announcements as articulated in the dashboards that are available online—the region that is dear to my heart and that is the Otago region. The question is the title of funding for the Accident Compensation Corporation where the recipient is indeed ACC and the sum of $12503650 has been announced for whatever project that ACC is the beneficiary of and that seems a reasonably odd announcement to me—in fact I haven't seen an announcement of it. And the third question I have in my opening bat is concerning media that was reported by RNZ last week around plans to announce a roughly $100 million recovery package for Southland in the wake of the imminent closure of the Tīwai Point aluminium smelter and attributing the New Zealand First Party with "scuppering the announcement at the 11th hour". Now as members know and certainly Sarah Dowie the MP for Invercargill knows how important the aluminium smelter is to the economy of Southland. The imminent closure if that indeed happens will be devastating for that region—and this revelation rubs I think salt in the wounds of Southlanders who are very badly affected by this pending news. So I would like to know whether or not the reports were accurate and if not or either way what the Government does have planned for that region in the wake of what will be probably the largest economic detriment to hit any province in a couple of generations. So there's three questions to kick off with.Hon SHANE JONES (Minister for Regional Economic Development): I'd like to thank the honourable member for those three questions and if I can start with his request for information about the connection between the Provincial Growth Fund administrative arm and shovel ready. I won't delve into which projects have not been yet announced. That lies with a broader number of Ministers than myself and the advice that we're taking from the Crown Infrastructure Partners ably led by Mark Binns. But I would like to say that the public information does provide the answer. Where it is appropriate for the Provincial Growth Fund network to handle shovel-ready announcements that are under $20 million and have been through either the process of the Crown Infrastructure Partners or have also been double checked by the Provincial Growth Fund then that is the crossover. There will be some cases where additional due diligence has to be undertaken. That's just to assure the public that where a party perhaps is not of local government character or another public entity with this level of pūtea the officials are burrowing into who the counter parties are and whether or not everything that they've identified stacks up. This is something that has already been carried out in earlier years during the life of the Provincial Growth Fund. On the question of $100 million and whether there was some scuttling I presume is what the former Minister is asking on the part of the party that I belong to our party belongs to the coalition Government and the coalition Government has actually mandated me to make significant announcements in the area of Murihiku the Southland area not the least of which is a handsome allocation of pūtea for flood resilience and stop work and catchment investments. So to suggest number one that our Government is not willing to put dough in to cushion the uncertainty felt within the economy I think is not only unfair but it's incorrect.On the point as to the $100 million I won't comment on scuttlebutt that may or may not be floating around Radio New Zealand. When Cabinet and the relevant Ministers who may be delegated to make decisions arrive at those decisions then the position of the Government is announced. I think that the future of the smelter will be an item of considerable politicking as we get closer to the election. I think the committee should bear in mind that the current owners have identified a 14-month period at which they will have exercised an option to—well they've exercised their power to haere rā to leave but they will have a tremendous fiscal obligation upon them. I did read some reports that the door was fiscally still ajar—I think I'm being reasonably accurate in attributing those remarks to the CEO.In respect of what personal authority I might have I'm part of a group led by the Minister of Finance and that group reports regularly to the Cabinet committee known as Economic Development and any decisions that have been announced by myself or other colleagues are within the mandate provided by the Cabinet to roll out the $2.6 billion of announcements some being kept back to deal with the inevitable cost overruns and other administrative challenges that we've learnt to our cost in the Provincial Growth Fund often do come to pass in the administration of such a large sum of money."