Little Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8686. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: What actions if any is his Government planning for New Zealanders about to celebrate Christmas who are among the growing number of unemployed or living in unhealthy rental housing or trying to buy their own home or waiting for vital surgery or needing a life-saving medicine?Mr SPEAKER: Before I call the Prime Minister my office has been advised that this answer may be longer than normal.Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): For people who cannot find work and have no other means of support the Government intends to give them a fortnightly payment until they can get back on their feet again. In fact the Government plans to increase the payment next year in real terms for the first time since 1972. For people on low incomes in rental housing the Government intends to subsidise their accommodation costs or to provide them with social housing which means they pay only a quarter of their income in rent. For people trying to buy their first home the Government provides HomeStart grants of up to $20000 as well as Welcome Home Loans. For people waiting for vital surgery the Government has increased the volume of publicly funded elective surgery this year by 5000 bringing the total increase to 50000 since 2008. For people needing medicines I would tell them that the Government has increased funding for Pharmac by $150 million a year and that in almost all cases people do not pay more than $5 for a fully subsidised medicine. For the area the member mentions Government support totals billions of dollars each year.Andrew Little: In light of that comprehensive answer after serving up gruel this year to those 15000 extra unemployed New Zealanders is he hoping to find a fix for the economy under the Christmas tree because clearly Bill English and Steven Joyce have failed to perform?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: We have an economy that is not only growing but is growing more jobs. We have according to the Minister of Finance the third-highest employment rate in the OECD. The number of people working has gone up by 160000 over the last 3 years. The number of people out of work has gone down by 19000. We have got one of the highest participation rates in the world. But I suppose in a way the way to measure all this is: are people leaving New Zealand to go to Australia or are they coming from Australia to live in New Zealand? And the answer is the latter in droves.Andrew Little: What is he doing to stop Nick “The Grinch” Smith from stealing the Kiwi dream of homeownership from more and more Auckland families as Auckland house prices rise five times faster than incomes?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Nick Smith has done an outstanding job over the last while and the fact that members opposite do not want to acknowledge it makes them the Grinch of Christmas not Nick Smith because this is a man who shepherded through special housing areas cheaper building costs reform of the Resource Management Act and the highest residential construction activity and consenting that we have seen in 11 years. This is a man who has seen KiwiSaver now provide up to $20000 as a deposit for a couple. This is someone who is helping—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The answer is now quite long enough. The next one.Andrew Little: Will he stop playing Scrooge and reverse the $1.7 billion of real per person cuts he has made to health including a $117 million cut in real purchasing power to Pharmac’s budget; if not why not?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Let us get things right. The only cut that has come this year has been in David Cunliffe’s ranking in the Labour Opposition—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon JOHN KEY: —and I am sure we all seek to be under-secretary to the leader on superannuation. But on the basis that we do not health under this Government has gone up enormously not only in terms of the funding but maybe most important in efficiency. This is a Government that has seen more surgical operations being undertaken more efficiency in the system and better health services for New Zealanders.Andrew Little: Now that 60 percent of Kiwis have voted with their dustbin on his flag referendum and in the spirit of the season will he stop wasting money on his pet project and use it to help needy children instead?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member is right that we are drawing to a close of the first referendum which from what I can see is tracking along the same path as postal referendums normally do. But I am going to go and when I wake up on the morning of 1 January of 2016 I am going to have two New Year’s resolutions. The first one I will keep secret because it is bound to be something like lose weight or whatever—Mr SPEAKER: Bring the answer to a conclusion.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: —and we do not like to disclose this—but No. 2 will be do not believe a single thing the Labour Party campaigns on because that is your policy Mr Little: to change the flag by referendum.Andrew Little: Putting aside Labour’s 1972 manifesto promises for now will he give a Christmas present to the hundreds of thousands of Kiwi families living in cold damp unhealthy—[Interruption]—rentals by putting aside partisan politics Dr Smith and backing my bill to outlaw slum housing; if not why not?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: It is not for me to give the Leader of the Opposition a history lesson but for a start-off in 1975 unlike today Labour was good. It won the election under Norm Kirk. [Interruption] In ’32. In1972. [Interruption] In 2014—Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is no point in continuing the answer because I do not think anybody can hear it. [Interruption] Order! Kris Faafoi that is your last warning for this question time.Andrew Little: Now that the Serco turkeys are cooked is he worried that Judith Collins is eyeing up his back with a carving knife?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: There is only one turkey in this House and I am looking at him.