1. CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
What have been the Government’s priorities to ensure New Zealand comes out of recession and achieves sustainable medium to long term growth?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
Our priorities through the recession have been to keep the economy ticking over and to protect the vulnerable. At the same time we have set out a long-term plan to lift New Zealand’s economic performance. In the last year we have delivered on the Government’s election commitments, removed the sharpest edges of recession, clawed back rising debt to manageable levels, and stabilised New Zealand’s credit rating.
There has been a wide range of measures, but I will reflect on just some of them: securing the stability of the financial system; supporting thousands of jobs through a number of initiatives, including Youth Opportunities, the Job Support Scheme, and ReStart; delivering a billion dollars of tax cuts; a large insulation fund; a programme to invest $7.5 billion in infrastructure; and an extensive programme of deregulation of business.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
How can that Minister claim that the New Zealand economy will be better off, when the Government’s response to the recession of cancelling superannuation fund contributions and providing billions of dollars of subsidies to polluters has been to steal from our children?
The only plans I have heard for stealing from our children are extravagant promises from Labour to borrow $6 billion more.
The first and most obvious one for the Government was when we discovered that over the next 3 years there would be a billion-dollar shortfall in accident compensation funding, and that the Government would have to pay a billion dollars into the non-earners account to fill the gap. We also inherited Government spending growing at 50 percent over the past 5 years, which means that we now have to borrow $250 million a week to fill the gap.
Hon David Cunliffe Link to this
How does that compare with the zero net debt and gross debt at half the level that his Government inherited from Labour—compared with what we inherited from the previous National Government—and with the $30 billion - odd of funds that our children will have to find for superannuation, added to the $30 billion to fund the climate liabilities that Gerry Brownlee wants to give to polluters?
The member may not realise that if we borrow more money now, that means our children will have to repay it, and if we borrow money to put into the Superannuation Fund, our children will have to repay the borrowings.
Rahui KateneDoes he agree with Dr Susan St John that the intended in-work tax credit reduces poverty selectively and punishes families in a recession, and how will those children, who have been consigned to live in severe and significant hardship, be supported out of poverty?
I understand that Dr Susan St John has a strong view about the in-work tax credit, and that it has been a matter of some litigation between the Crown and the Child Poverty Action Group. We are following with interest both the debate about its effectiveness and the legal proceedings.
What is the Government doing to respond to the outcomes from the hui held 2 weeks ago at Manurewa Marae to end child poverty in Aotearoa?