4. Question No. 4—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 4—Prime Minister4. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's policies and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes—in particular the Government's work to prioritise the construction of new housing throughout the recovery from COVID-19. We saw the impact of the global financial crisis on the residential construction industry with residential construction activity halving between 2008 and 2011. That's why it's particularly pleasing to see the number of new homes consented was up 15 percent from April 2020. I'm also proud of the new building laws passed last week that will lift the efficiency and quality of building work and enable off-site manufacturing. The new scheme will allow off-site building manufacturers who are certified to sign off on their own designs and construction drastically speeding up the building consent process.David Seymour: Why did the Prime Minister choose to use housing as her example of good policy when house prices are up 20 percent year on year and 8 percent for the quarter?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Because we have record consenting numbers not seen in this country ever and that's during an economic downturn when usually based on past evidence we've seen a decline in the residential building sector. Also because in the Budget Treasury are predicting that house price growth will drop down to 0.9 percent demonstrating that the changes we've made will have an effect on the housing market. Thank you for the second patsy question.David Seymour: Ha ha! Too easy. Does she stand by her policy of spending $675 million on a cycle bridge in Auckland while nurses up and down the country go on strike?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Look of course we accept that we are in a period of time where we do have to both make the investments in infrastructure billions of dollars' worth to continue to create jobs and build the infrastructure that we need for it in order to have a world-class city. I don't think the member necessarily agrees with the idea that our city should be split in two and that people do not have the ability to walk or cycle between the CBD and the North Shore. On the issue of nurses we have made an offer that substantially lifts those who are on the lowest pay bands and in the starting brackets for the nursing community. But at the moment their ask is 17 percent; we're just not in the position to be able to fund that at this point in time.David Seymour: Does she stand by her Government's recent Budget which forecasts an increase of $2 billion each and every year on jobseeker support and emergency benefits from pre-COVID levels while nurses up and down the country go on strike?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm not necessarily sure that I see the direct relevance there. We are working hard to invest in reducing the call on job seeker—for instance creating jobs through infrastructure investment. The first primary question I gave today demonstrated that we are seeing a large number of people moving into training and education to fulfil the infrastructure pipeline that we as a Government are creating. We also have Treasury predicting we will see a fall in job seeker numbers because of the investments that we are making. That is at a time when we are in one of the biggest economic crises that New Zealand has ever experienced.David Seymour: Does she stand by her Government's policy of spending half a billion dollars a year on fees-free tertiary education which has not increased participation and mainly accrues to students who went to—SPEAKER: Order! Order! Order! I'm—David Seymour: Sorry?SPEAKER: Sorry I'll stand up and rule if the member wants it clarified. The member may ask a question; he doesn't need to add to the question material which is unnecessary for the sense of the question. We have been liberal in recent times and allowed two legs to a question but neither of those legs should be a statement. The member asked a question and then went on to make a statement which is out of order.David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: I just—the member will resume his seat—hope the member's not going to argue with me. There's not much more clear cut in the Standing Orders and Speakers' rulings than what I've just to the member.David Seymour: Point of order. Mr Speaker I would never argue with you; I accept your ruling wholly. But I would draw your attention to the Standing Orders which have the same requirements on the answers. Now in the answer most recently given by the Prime Minister rather than addressing the expenditure on benefit she tried to argue that benefits were going down while accepting that the money spent was going to go up. Now those two can't both be true. It was pointless argumentation it was completely superfluous and yet she got away with it. I just ask that there be some equivalency between the answers and the questions.Hon Grant Robertson: Speaking to the point of order Mr Speaker. The member's question that he just referred to there asked the Prime Minister if she stood by the Government's Budget and then he said which includes"; the Prime Minister had a very wide area that she could answer on given that the question simply asked if she stood by her Budget—which thankfully she did!SPEAKER: The member might be technically right—the Hon Grant Robertson—and David Seymour of course has an ability to take a point of order after the question not after he is pulled up. But I would have pointed out to him that I think the only responsibility that I have in that particular area was not for the answer itself but for the length which I think was beginning to push things.David Seymour: Thank you Mr Speaker. Does the Prime Minister stand by her policy of spending half a billion dollars a year on fees-free tertiary education which has not increased participation while nurses—SPEAKER: Order! No the member's lost it now. David Seymour: Point of order Mr Speaker. I thought I was allowed to name one feature of the policy. No—none at all?SPEAKER: No. David Seymour: Why didn't Budget 2021 have measures to provide tax relief for middle income New Zealanders such as nurses and teachers and police who will be watching this industrial action very closely?SPEAKER: Oh—I am going to allow the question but I'm going to remind the member: first of all he added something on a phrase at the end about who was watching; and secondly he had at least two further legs to the supplementary. I'm going to allow the Prime Minister to pick any one of the multiple questions that she was asked to answer.David Seymour: Point of order. SPEAKER: Um—I mean—David Seymour.David Seymour: Mr Speaker I seek your guidance. The Standing Orders say that you cannot add irrelevant material—unnecessary—to make the point of the question. Now the point of my question is that there is a contrast between nurses and other civil servants. A tax package could have given relief to all of them. The Government's policy targets only one—SPEAKER: All right OK.David Seymour: So there was a point to—SPEAKER: OK. Now we're not—the member will resume his seat. We're not going to have a policy debate here now. I've already said although I'm tempted to reverse my position that the Prime Minister can answer the question but I will refer him now to Speaker's ruling 181/4 which if members continue to argue with me about the limits I will enforce.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As the member will be well aware the focus of Budget 2021 was on our recovery from COVID-19 and also investing in the long-term challenges that New Zealand faces. One of those long-term challenges is inequality and child poverty. That was the reason why we made the choice to invest in those on the lowest incomes in New Zealand that includes those on Government support. It also has the double effect of providing economic stimulus into the economy at a time when we require that as part of our ongoing recovery. So that's to answer the member's question as to why we chose to invest in that way rather than tax cuts which is his party's position. The second and final point I'll make is that that is not mutually exclusive from us trying to continue to lift the wages of those lowest-income earners. That is why the nurses' settlement that was put before them included a lift for those healthcare assistants that was between 12 and 5 percent; for enrolled nurses of between 11 and 4.2 percent; and registered and community nurses those starting out bands of between 4.4 percent and 2.9 percent. Even though we are in an economically constrained environment we still wanted to see those on the lowest wages lifted because in our last pay round of negotiations which was roughly $500 million we focused on lifting general wages across that workforce.David Seymour: Is the Prime Minister aware that ACT's alternative Budget by removing the 30c tax rate would have delivered nurses in the middle of their pay scale $2000 or almost 4 percent a year?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I will have to concede that I am not across every single element of ACT's policies."