1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes particularly the Government's work to prevent and respond to COVID-19 including the announcement made yesterday by Minister Woods to invest $25 million to speed up the trial and deployment of innovations to help New Zealand's response to COVID-19. The COVID-19 Innovation Acceleration Fund is aimed at the fast development of new products and services that could help to detect diagnose treat or prevent COVID-19 by supporting research and development prototyping and pre-production activities. This global pandemic is hitting every nation hard and as a Government we are working hard to reduce the impact of COVID-19.Hon Simon Bridges: Are ANZ economists correct when they estimate that New Zealand's economy will shrink by 10 percent this year while Australia's will fall by less than 5?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I've said there's a range of different economists and indeed the Treasury itself has made several different assumptions. We're unable to pinpoint one because this is not over. What of course we can say is New Zealand went in with a stronger position actually than Australia. We had lower unemployment we had lower debt and we had strong growth. We were well placed then; that positions us well coming out of it.Hon Simon Bridges: Does she agree with the IMF's estimate that New Zealand's unemployment rate will rise by twice as much as Australia's this year?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member I see is being very selective with the IMF forecast because for instance when you look at their estimates of what unemployment might be in say 2021 they're estimating New Zealand at 6.8 percent and Australia at 8.9 percent—the US at over 9 percent. My point here is that many institutions and economists are forecasting; not all of it will necessarily be accurate but we went in strong and our intention is to come out as strong as possible.Hon Simon Bridges: Will Government debt increase by more than 50 percent of GDP as a result of COVID-19?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Obviously I'm not going to speculate on any forecasting that needs to wait until the Budget but what I again will say is that we were a Government that got debt down to under 20 percent of GDP which was a better position than what we inherited from the last Government. It's also I think worth mentioning that relative to other OECD nations New Zealand has very low debt relative to GDP and again that puts us in a good position relative to others going into the shock that this global pandemic has created.Hon Simon Bridges: Will the Government deficit this year be bigger or smaller than $20 billion?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again I'm not going to get into speculation. The member can obviously wait until the Budget.Hon Simon Bridges: Can she rule out introducing a capital gains tax (CGT) or wealth tax while she is Prime Minister?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I've already been asked that question in a stand-up; I've already said that I'm not as Prime Minister going to bring in a CGT.Hon Simon Bridges: Can we take it from that answer that she is considering a wealth tax?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No.Hon Simon Bridges: Can she rule out increasing personal income taxes while she is Prime Minister?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I have to say I find it bizarre that when we're in a scenario where we are doing everything we can to support and increase the incomes going into families at this one-in-100-year event the member would start asking questions like that. We spent $10 billion on a wage subsidy to try and make sure that people were well supported through this event. We've put in place packages around tax rebates for business. We've put in place a small business loan scheme that's interest free. We are doing everything we can to support New Zealanders at this time. It does come at a cost and that member is one of those who has argued for more to be spent rather than less.Rt Hon Winston Peters: So Prime Minister can we get it clear that she will not say No new taxes" and then add 2.5 percent to GST for example and then use that money for tax cuts for our mates?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I can confirm that obviously the last Government did believe in bringing in tax cuts that would have disproportionately benefited people in this House. You will have seen from decisions made by this Government that actually Ministers in Cabinet decided that they would take a pay reduction to support and acknowledge those who at the moment are doing it tough.Hon Simon Bridges: Can she rule out introducing any new taxes or increasing existing taxes to pay for the debt her Government is building up?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I've referred in my previous answer the total focus of this Government is supporting those—particularly workers in industries—that are losing their jobs. That is our singular focus: support for them recovery for those industries and making sure New Zealand is in the best possible position going forward and I'm simply not engaging in political hypotheticals.Hon Simon Bridges: To be clear will she not rule out new taxes to pay for the debt accumulating at the current time?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What I'm pointing out is that at the moment we're doing everything we can to increase the amount of incomes going into households of people who are doing it tough. Hon Simon Bridges: Can the House take it from those answers there may well be new taxes as a result of the debt that is accumulating today and through Budget 2020?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I said that member should make no assumptions no hypotheticals but as you can see from everything we've done we're focusing on increasing the incomes going into those lower-middle income earners and supporting us through this incredibly tough time."