John Key: No one knows how bad things will get

Hon Phil Goff: Did the Prime Minister talk to Mr English about contradicting, and therefore undermining, his view about aggressively coming out of the recession, and given the confusing signals to the business community and the public, when the two National Party leaders say things contradicting one another; is the Prime Minister confident that this will not happen again? Hon JOHN KEY: Not in the slightest"”I have huge respect for the views held by the Minister of Finance, and I talk to him regularly. I might add that, on top of the different scenarios that Treasury has provided, it is worth noting how much variation there is out there. Only this week Business and Economic Research Ltd came out thinking unemployment would be 5.2 percent at its peak. Members can contrast that with the New Zealand Institute saying a few weeks earlier that unemployment would be 11 percent, and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research had it at 6.1 percent. The reality is that we are in a very unusual recession"”arguably the worst since the 1930s Depression"”and there is a range of views on exactly when New Zealand will start growing again.