6. Question No. 6—FinanceHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 6—Finance6. Hon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana) to the Minister of Finance: Does she stand by her statement We will … both [be] sustaining front-line services and in the cases of the areas … I outlined in my opening remarks increasing funding for those services."?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): Yes I stand by my full statement in the context in which it was given. In my opening remarks to the Finance and Expenditure Committee about the Budget Policy Statement I said "front-line services like health education and law and order will get more funding." and I'm proud to say that in Budget 2024 they certainly will.Hon Barbara Edmonds: What directions does she give to Ministers or chief executives in avoiding cuts to front-line services?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: I said that when agencies were putting forward savings proposals they should apply good judgment and be careful that proposals should not put front-line services at risk.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Is it good judgment for the Department of Internal Affairs to make cuts to the child exploitation team cuts to care or support funded through Whaikaha—Ministry of Disabled People and Customs cutting its border services?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: In what has become a habit from that member she tends to paraphrase and summarise a series of loosely connected facts and make assertions about them. In the case of what I think are restructuring proposals that the member is in this question referring to I would note that they are under consultation and therefore no final decisions have been taken.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Does she believe she can commit to her commitment of no front-line service cuts when she is doing nothing to enforce her expectations as part of Budget 2024?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Mr Speaker I'll tell you how we roll over here: we enforce our expectations.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Has Cabinet signed—SPEAKER: Hang on—just wait for your own colleagues.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Has Cabinet signed off this year's Budget and if so on what date was it agreed to?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Cabinet processes are not something that I think is in the public interest to divulge at this time. But I am pleased that the member opposite is obviously as excited as I am about the 2024 Budget. You'll have to wait until 30 May when I deliver it and I'm sorry you're not going to get first dibs on the content.Hon Barbara Edmonds: Is the reason she is so committed to delivering her tax cuts as part of Budget 2023 because protecting her own job is more important than the jobs of front-line workers?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Why it's important to me to provide tax relief to working people is that unlike the members opposite I don't think it's the man in high-vis or the woman in the nurse's uniform that should always be the last to get relief. Unlike the members opposite I'm not going to continue on a path of low-value spending of wasteful programmes—like merging TVNZ and RNZ and three waters reform—when there are working people paying more and more of their income in tax who've had to endure a cost of living crisis that her party fuelled. We are delivering them tax relief. They've worked hard and they earn it."