1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterDr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Dr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions related to the COVID-19 response?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes in the context in which they were made and undertaken.Dr Shane Reti: Does she agree with the Deputy Auditor-General who said in relation to the Government's spending on COVID-19 we only have a partial picture?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister I broadly speaking agree with the Auditor-General that we should do as much as possible to be able to show what the spending under the COVID response and recovery fund is and how the progress is tracking on it. What the Auditor-General has acknowledged in their report is that the systems that this Parliament uses to track spending may not be fully appropriate when we have a crisis situation like COVID-19 and a very large response delivered very quickly. The Minister of Finance is working through with Treasury how best to respond to the Auditor-General's report.Dr Shane Reti: Will her Government then produce quarterly reports on COVID-19 response spending as recommended by the Office of the Auditor-General and if so will that start this quarter?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister I'm informed by the Minister of Finance that he is discussing exactly that with Treasury at the moment as to what is possible in that regard. But in terms of the overall report by the Auditor-General we certainly accept that when we have a crisis situation that requires such a large response Parliament's normal financial processes which are being followed with respect to COVID-19 expenditure may not be enough.Dr Shane Reti: Will those discussions also include a commitment to publishing a detailed account of all COVID-19 spending similar to the UK which has a dedicated online COVID-19 cost tracker website?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: We are prepared to look at all options to ensure that New Zealanders can have confidence that the very large amount of money that has been put aside to respond to COVID-19 is being well spent and to be able to track that. New Zealand does have a very robust system of public accounting but it does rely on the financial review process which members will be very familiar with because they're going through it now. We will look to see what we can do to further provide information on this. I would note that throughout the period of the COVID-19 expenditure we went through a number of processes here in the House where we identified what that expenditure was and you will be seeing reports about that from various agencies over the coming months.Dr Shane Reti: Does she agree then with the Auditor-General that future generations will likely inherit significantly more public debt as a result of the current spending on the COVID-19 response and that current and future generations will want to know where the money has gone?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I certainly accept the fact that in responding to a one-in-100-year economic shock the Government was required to take on more debt. At the time that was certainly supported by the Opposition. We have in our mind a situation where we were unsure and uncertain as the rest of the world was as to the full impact. We moved decisively and swiftly to ensure that New Zealanders' lives and livelihoods were protected and I'm proud of that response.Dr Shane Reti: Will she commit to releasing a detailed breakdown of the spending and jobs created from the 1.2 billion Jobs for Nature programme which is part of the COVID-19 response?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Absolutely and in fact yesterday in the House I heard the Hon Kiri Allan begin to give exactly what the Minister was asking for; unfortunately she went outside of the Speaker's tolerance for that.Dr Shane Reti: Why did her Government wait until 18 December last year well after the House rose for the year to release the Roche-Simpson report into the COVID-19 response when her Government received a draft in September and the final version on 27 November?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister the member is better off directing that question to the Minister concerned but it was released. It has been very strongly publicly debated.SPEAKER: Question No.—Hon Member: Ha ha! That's hilarious.SPEAKER: Order! The member doesn't interrupt me when I'm calling another member.