Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 22 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2217. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
1. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he have confidence in the Minister of Finance? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How can he have confidence in the Minister of Finance when despite warnings from Treasury he agreed to let South Canterbury Finance into the extended Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme resulting in losses of hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to the taxpayers of New Zealand? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I think it is worth pointing out for a start off that South Canterbury Finance effectively fell over under the old scheme. That was a scheme put together by the Labour Party on the eve of its campaign launch supported by Winston Peters. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! A point of order has been called. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I emphasised in my question the word “extended” Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme which happened under his Government not under Mr Cullen and Labour. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member’s point is a fair one. His question did specifically ask about the extended scheme and I would ask the right honourable Prime Minister to come to that in his answer please. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: It would not have made any difference. If there had not been an extension of the scheme South Canterbury Finance would have gone and sold them immediately. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Supplementary question— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: What did this Minister do when he was around for 3 years? 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Got rid of you. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Would the member please just ask his supplementary question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: We all know how do we not. How can the Prime Minister have confidence in the Minister of Finance when by his own projections debt will continue to grow under his National Government for the next 5 years to at least $75 billion. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: What is true is that we inherited a recession from the Labour Government propped up by New Zealand First in 2008. What is true is that we inherited from a Labour Government propped up by New Zealand First a mess of an economy with programmes that were unaffordable and unworkable. What is true is that we inherited a deposit guarantee scheme announced on the eve of the Labour Party conference probably to try to deflect public comment away from the problems that the then foreign affairs Minister was having before he stood down. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What a mess that was! How can he have confidence in the Minister of Finance when GDP growth has averaged a pathetic 0.8 percent over the last 3 years public debt has increased over 700 percent and a thousand New Zealanders a week are leaving for Australia? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Let us take up that point of Government debt. What is true is that this Government has run debt over the last 3 or 4 years and will do so for the next couple of years in order to take the rough edges off the recession. So if Winston Peters wants to tell New Zealanders to slash health care slash superannuation slash welfare and retirement— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The question did actually ask how the Prime Minister can have confidence in his Minister of Finance. It did not actually require the Prime Minister to go into what Winston Peters may or may not want. The question was certainly seeking an opinion and there is a lot of range in opinion when opinion is sought but I do not think the answer needed to quite go down that track. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How can the Prime Minister have confidence in the Minister of Finance when he is spending $120 million of taxpayers’ money to mount a public relations propaganda campaign to justify selling off assets that when sold will leave New Zealand permanently worse off? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: For a start off I utterly reject the latter point and on the first point they are the fees required to release $7 billion worth of capital that would otherwise have to be borrowed from foreigners and we would have to pay the bond fees relating to those. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Is it not a fact that this Government “pre-borrowed and over-borrowed”—to use these words—“against rising interest rates” an explanation that the Prime Minister gave to the public at the time whereas interest rates have fallen as has our currency now which surely means a loss to the New Zealand taxpayer not a gain; and who was the architect behind this bright speculative idea? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The Debt Management Office is responsible for the bond programme that we run. But if you want my view going out there and ensuring that New Zealand had a source of liquidity at a time when we were suffering a global financial crisis and the markets were weak was a very sensible thing to do. If there is a problem in Europe in the next few months New Zealand being fully funded will be something that is welcomed by New Zealanders—obviously other than those who are supporters of New Zealand First.