1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Prime Minister): Yes and especially the very strong actions the Government has taken to ensure that we're focused on improving the lives of New Zealanders by rebuilding the economy and particularly with news out this morning that the previous Government's economic mismanagement saw the economy shrink in three of the past four quarters—three of the past four quarters. In particular I stand by our action to stop the significant risk posed to taxpayers by cost escalations on KiwiRail's ferry project; also our action to focus the Reserve Bank on fighting inflation which is of course pain and suffering to all New Zealanders; of course our action to actually change the speed limit rules to allow New Zealanders to get to where they need to go faster and safer. I have to tell you this is a Government that is elected with a mandate for change and an unashamed and unflinching focus on cleaning up the mess left by that member's Government to get our country back on track and realise all the great potential that sits in this country.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Does he stand by his Government's decision to suspend regulatory impact statements for proposals in his 100-day plan and does he feel that suspending advice on the impact of his decisions is based on data and evidence?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: We are very comfortable with suspending regulatory impact statements because we don't think they'll add value for decisions that we're repealing legislation on.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Does he agree with the National Party leader Christopher Luxon that I can tell you we're going to be straight with the New Zealand people tell it as it is—the good the bad and the ugly"; if so what's changed?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Very much—we're going to be very straight up with the New Zealand people and what they have heard today is that that was a previous Government that led three of the last four quarters' declining economic growth. What they've heard today and we've been straight up with the New Zealand people about is a $15 billion New Zealand Upgrade project with an Auditor-General's report that says it was appallingly managed—appallingly managed. What you're going to see is a Government that is very focused on making sure taxpayers are not treated like bottomless ATM machines that we get return for their money.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Did he suspend regulatory impact statements before or after the regulatory impact statement for repealing fair pay agreements was leaked?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: We are determined to make sure through repealing the fair pay awards legislation that we can actually make it easier for people to hire workers not harder.Hon Grant Robertson: Point of order.SPEAKER: Point of order—I think I know what's coming.Hon Grant Robertson: Yeah well do you want to do it?SPEAKER: I think you could do a bit better with the answer Prime Minister on that one.Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: It was before.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Does he stand by his Government's decision to repeal fair pay agreements the Reserve Bank dual mandate and the Clean Car Discount under urgency with no select committee process or regulatory impact statement or does he agree with Chris Bishop that "This is a disgraceful way to make important law."?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: In answer to the first leg of the question yes.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Has he suspended receiving regulatory impact statements because (a) he doesn't like what they say (b) he's going to ignore them anyway (c) he knows they'll leak or (d) all of the above?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: We went to an election we had a campaign we made very clear what we were going to do and we're going to do it.Hon Grant Robertson: In light of that answer can we now expect that because of the election result no pieces of legislation will be referred to a select committee?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: No. We want a proper process. [Interruption] No no hear the answer—hear the answer. The answer is: when we went to the election with really good clarity about the policies we're going to repeal and the dumb legislation from the previous Government that we're repealing—we're going to move forward with great speed so that we can actually get this country moving forward. But what I'd just say: I think it is ironic on a day when we've had economic news where in three of the last quarters under the previous Government we had negative economic growth at a time when inflation has been out of the band for the last over 21 months when we've seen wages not keeping pace with inflation we haven't had a single economic question from the Opposition—a single economic question from the Opposition.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can I ask the Prime Minister: has the Government just learnt with respect to KiwiRail the lack of impact that the impact statement had on the previous Government?SPEAKER: No look I'll tell you what these sort of questions aren't very helpful to the order of the House. They might be enormously entertaining for a number of people but they're not helpful for the order of the House and that's two days in a row so can you sort of keep it down to genuine questions? There must be a lot of genuine questions you could ask the Government.Hon Phil Twyford: Does the Government now support the immediate humanitarian ceasefire it voted for at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday or does it still believe there are a list of preconditions that must be met before calling for a ceasefire?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: I think our position is very clear. We want a cease to hostilities—as you've seen in the parliamentary statement; as you've seen from the joint Prime Ministers' statements for Australia New Zealand and Canada; and as you've seen for our support for the General Assembly resolution."