listened very carefully to your previous ruling in relation to Speakers’ ruling 21/7. My understanding of that, and perhaps you can clarify for me, is that it refers to not being able to raise a point of order if a member had been absent at the time. The point of order I raised, I raised as quickly as was practicable—
SPEAKER: No, the member will resume his seat. The member’s understanding is incorrect. We come to oral questions—
Hon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): Point of order. The issue is, it seems to me, not so much what Mr Seymour’s raising, but rather that what you did was criticise him for not being somewhere, and then in the next speech that you gave—
SPEAKER: Order! Order! The Hon Simon Bridges will leave the Chamber.
Hon Simon Bridges withdrew from the Chamber.
ORAL QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS
Question No. 1—Finance
1. ANNA LORCK (Labour—Tukituki) to the Minister of Finance: What reports has he seen on financial support given to businesses in the wake of recent alert level changes?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): The Government has a number of different types of financial support available for businesses during alert level changes. The resurgence support scheme, which has kicked in for both the alert level changes, on 14 February and 28 February, has so far paid out $73.64 million to just over 37,500 businesses and sole traders. The payment is intended to help businesses with their fixed costs, like rent, and is still open for applications for both recent alert level changes.
Anna Lorck: What reports has he seen on the wage subsidy scheme after the most recent alert level changes?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The wage subsidy scheme opened for applications last Thursday and as of this morning there had been 37,725 applications for the subsidy. Payments began yesterday and already just over $82 million has been paid out.
Anna Lorck: What progress has been made on auditing the wage subsidy scheme?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: There has been a lot of interest in the integrity measures around the wage subsidy scheme, and I can report to the House that as of the end of February, 12,009 complaints had been received by Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and the Ministry of Social Development around the wage subsidy scheme; 10,934 audits have been resolved. There have been 20,973 refunds received, with $726.2 million paid back to date.
Question No. 2—Prime Minister
2. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government’s policies and actions?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes. Also, the announcement today by Minister Hipkins around establishing an advisory group that ensures, as we continue to respond to COVID-19, that we are continually improving and adapting our response. We’ve been very pleased to appoint a group that will be chaired by Sir Brian Roche, who’s been involved in these continuous improvement assessments before. He’ll be joined by Rob Fyfe, who I’ve been using on an ongoing basis as an adviser with the private sector, Dr Debbie Ryan, Professor Philip Hill, and Dr Dale Bramley, who has expertise in this area from a public health approach.
