3. Question No. 3—Prime MinisterDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 3—Prime Minister3. DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his Government's policies and actions?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Prime Minister): Yes and especially today's Budget Policy Statement (BPS) which is setting out the coalition Government's Budget priorities. And they are to deliver meaningful tax relief to low and middle income working New Zealanders to identify enduring savings to improve public services to keep tight control of Government spending while funding high-priority initiatives and urgent cost pressures and to develop a long-term sustainable pipeline of infrastructure investments. The BPS charts I think a moderate responsible course correction for New Zealand which will support New Zealanders struggling with the cost of living crisis.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Does he stand by the Government's decision to only increase the minimum wage by 2 percent when inflation is at 4.7 percent which is a cut to the minimum wage in real terms?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Yes. What I support though is actually growing our economy and making sure that we do everything we can to end the wasteful spending so we can protect front-line services do everything we can to give tax relief to low and middle income working families and make sure that we have growth in our economy. That's what we're focused on.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What is his response to the fact that this effective cut to the minimum wage will increase child poverty rates given that 64 percent of families in poverty are in work?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: I disagree. The real opportunity for New Zealand is to grow our economy. Our economy for four of the last five quarters has been shrinking and been in recession. We need to grow our economy. That's how we get to lift wages for all and get people out of the cost of living crisis.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: How are workers meant to keep up with rising food and rent costs when the Government is cutting their wages in real terms?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well what they need is a Government that's going to have responsible financial management rather than an 84 percent increase in Government spending which drove up domestic inflation which drove up interest rates which put the economy into shrinking—into recession—and creates rising risk of unemployment. We need to deal with the underlying cause which is inflation get spending under control bring inflation down get interest rates down get the economy growing and keep people in employment.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Will he commit to delivering annual increases to minimum wage that keep up with rising costs to ensure workers have a liveable income—SPEAKER: Just wait on. Start that again. Someone over there made a comment. That's quite unnecessary during the middle of a question. Please start the question again and we will have people hearing the question in silence.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Will he commit to delivering annual increases to the minimum wage that keep up with rising costs to ensure workers have a liveable income to support their w'ānau; if not why not?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: What we are committing to is Family Boost which is a programme to give 100000 low and middle income working families some relief so they can put that towards their early childhood education centre costs and we're also committing to tax relief for low and middle income workers—a group frankly that the Labour Party and Te Pāti Māori used to care deeply about.