5. Question No. 5—FinanceHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 5—Finance5. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all of his policies and actions?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context in which they were undertaken. In particular I stand by my action today to announce $12 billion of additional capital spending to tackle the infrastructure challenge we were left with and boost the New Zealand economy in the face of global economic headwinds.Hon Paul Goldsmith: How is it possible that he could take an economy growing strongly and surpluses as far as the eye can see and turn that into a slowly growing economy and deficit in just two years?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As already traversed in the questions to the Prime Minister we have seen a significant downgrading of global growth right across the board. That has a flow-on effect to the New Zealand economy. What we do know is that the New Zealand economy continues to outperform many of our trading partners including Australia Canada Japan the UK and the euro area. We are not unaffected by global slowdown but we are managing the books carefully and well and making the investments New Zealanders need us to make.Hon Paul Goldsmith: How can New Zealanders have any faith that this won't be the first of many deficits?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The reason they can have faith in that is because of what was released today by the Treasury which shows that we go back into surplus and we have $12 billion worth of surpluses in the forecast period.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he now regret his Government cancelling or postponing several major transport infrastructure projects that were consented and ready to go in the first two years of his Government?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No because the premise of that question is incorrect. In the first two years what we had to do was fix up mouldy and leaky hospitals rebuild school classrooms and approve new school classrooms and begin a new transport programme. What we have announced today is a big and significant boost to a number of areas of capital spending including over $6.8 billion for transport-related projects. The difference between what we've announced today and what the member is referring to is that we've actually funded it.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Did his Government feel the need to make its promise over debt levels because New Zealanders don't trust Labour Governments to live within their means?SPEAKER: Order! I'm going to ask the member to rephrase it.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Well did his Government in the Speech from the Throne feel the need to make its promise over debt levels because it worried that New Zealanders do not trust Labour Governments to live within their means?SPEAKER: Closer.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No. What we did was we inherited a net debt level of 22.9 percent. We took that down to under 20 percent. And in the forecast released today it will peak at 21.5 percent.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can I ask the Minister of Finance that if dedicating expenditure to projects amounts to what Mr Goldsmith said in the House today—that announcing is not delivering—does it nevertheless sure beat announcing without any dedication of funds whatsoever?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Yes it most certainly does because the problem for the Government was that we inherited a series of promises around transport. Many of those were not funded. The announcement we have made today on top of the $17.7 billion already being spent in the National Land Transport Fund represents as I have said the biggest capital spending we've seen in 20 years.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Will he promise that the projects funded by his new borrowing will be more successful than KiwiBuild?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The projects that we have committed ourselves to today will play a very important role in lifting the productivity of New Zealand of giving certainty and they will deliver. And—I will repeat my earlier answer—this is actual funding for actual projects rather than the ghost roads.Chlöe Swarbrick: Will the Minister give effect to his statement that our planet cannot continue to sustain growth that is built on burning more and more fossil fuels through directing ACC to divest nearly one billion dollars in fossil fuel investment?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As we traversed earlier in the House last week I understand that this is an important issue for many New Zealanders. We have seen the Super Fund take the lead in this regard and I have written to all of the Crown financial institutions asking them to ensure that they continue to support the overall goals of the Government as we move towards for example a low carbon economy.