Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's office have released the cost of his Te Reo Māori lessons, saying they came to $4150 during his year as Leader of the Opposition.

The te reo lessons came under some scrutiny earlier this week after AAP revealed they were funded by the taxpayer, despite Luxon's earlier criticism of spending on te reo Maori lessons for public servants.

Asked about the cost on his trip to Australia, Luxon said he thought it was "a good thing" that MPs learned te reo Māori, and funding it was not something to be opposed to.

Luxon was sceptical about spending on te reo Māori lessons for public servants when asked on 6 December whether bonus payments were a good way to encourage people to learn the language.

"What I'd just say to you is people are completely free to learn te reo themselves, that's what happens out there in the real world - out there in corporate life, or in any other community life across New Zealand," he said.

"I've got a number of MPs for example that have made a big effort to learn te reo over the last five years and they've driven that learning themselves because they want to do it."

He was then asked if that was paid for by the MPs themselves or taxpayers.

"In the real world, outside of Wellington and outside the bubble of Parliament, people who want to learn te reo or want to learn any other education actually pay for it themselves. It's quite normal," Luxon said.

Several MPs have said they had introductory te reo Māori lessons as part of their induction to being an MP.

During Question Time in August, Willis was grilling then-Finance Minister Robertson over the state of the books, accusing him of “spraying New Zealanders’ money around” and only now asking the public sector to “tighten its belt”, following reports of a meeting between Robertson and public service bosses and a larger-than-expected fiscal hole.

Robertson hit back, pointing to past and ongoing savings and arguing the real issue was Willis now “couldn’t pay for the promises that had already been made”.

In what was until then a tense exchange Willis then began to respond, “How big is his hole...?”, before pausing over the last word as she appeared to realise the potential interpretation of what she was saying.

What began with a few chuckles as the faux pas caught on - the crucial word “fiscal” missing - built up to full-throttled laughter across the House. 

Willis attempted to, very briefly, carry on before giving in to the moment. Her colleague Joseph Mooney could be seen behind her barely containing himself.

“That is not in the public interest, I assure you,” the typically quick-witted Robertson responded, only leading to further howls of laughter from MPs of all stripes.

Willis sought to compose herself and respond but had to give up several times.“How big is... the New Zealand Government’s financial hole?” she was finally able to ask.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has admitted its been a long year after making another lewd Question Time gaffe.

Talking about her Government's tax plan to be announced next year, Willis told the House, "What New Zealanders care about is the size of the sausage not how its delivered".

The house erupted in laughter. Deputy Prime Minister rose with a point of order, trying to deflect the questioning to Labour's Grant Robertson.

Robertson interjected, "hang on, don't talk about my sausage".

Robertson tried to get Willis to answer in detail how the Government will pay for its tax package, but all Willis said was that there would be a series of revenue streams including the $7.4b in savings that was outlined in today's mini-Budget.

She said there would also be further baseline savings, cost recovery for immigration levies, revenue from increasing IRD audits, and taxing online casinos.

She then prompted hysterical laughter when she said it was about "the size of the sausage and not how it's delivered".

She then said: "It's been a year of bad quotes from me."

Earlier this year Willis prompted laughter throughout the House when she asked Robertson, referring to fiscal holes, "how big is his hole?"

A comment about the Government's plan to repeal the smokefree legislation prompted a series of shouting exchanges from both sides, with Peters eventually saying "shouting won't help you".

Peters continued speaking even though Speaker Gerry Brownlee rose to his feet, which usually silences the House.

"You may not think you've finished but I do, and I don't mean that in terms of your career," Brownlee told Peters.

Raising a point of order, Peters retorted that it had become a "screaming volatile mess" and, while he enjoyed some interjections, "that clownest cacophony of behaviour doesn't work".

During Question Time, Willis said inflation was forecast to drop below 3 per cent in the second half of next year but will remain a challenge in coming months.

Government spending was $15b higher than forecast two years ago due to "loose fiscal policy", she said.

Asked if there was a risk the Government's tax cuts would lead to New Zealanders being worse off overall, Willis noted Treasury's comments that the overall impact would be broadly fiscally neutral over the forecast period.

Labour's Grant Robertson countered that Treasury also said once all the policies are rolled out there may be some changes and there was a risk the overall fiscal impacts may not be neutral.

Asked about National's plans to raise revenue by taxing online gambling despite NZ First's 2023 manifesto saying that it wasn't credible, Deputy PM Winston Peters, speaking on behalf of PM Luxon, said: "They couldn't run the school tuck shop. In our case we ask good questions and we're still waiting for an answer."

The Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney said the so-called mini-Budget left a lot of questions unanswered.

“Despite calling for clarity on existing spending, the mini-Budget today does not provide any analysis of the tax cut or spending programme of the Government.”

“The government is claiming that it is cutting $1.5bn of spending per year. Of that, $0.5bn is commitments made by the previous government. $0.4bn is cuts which have already been committed to changing Early Childcare support. So only $0.6bn is new. $1bn of immediate cuts is money that comes from cuts to the transport budget – which is paid for by fuel taxes.

“The Government has claimed that it is delivering fiscal responsibility but has taken money from climate change to deliver tax cuts for landlords and it’s taking $676m from welfare payments.

"It’s unclear how that will make delivering on the child poverty targets easier or make the cost of living easier for low income families.

“The announcements today leave much still to be explained. There appears to still be a debate within government about when key planks of the tax cut package will be delivered. Yet there is nothing in this package to help with the cost of living. New Zealanders have to wait until May next year to find out what the plan is. The Government should be making this clear today.”

"I'm proud of what we did as a government. We navigated through some very choppy seas. We kept New Zealanders in work, we kept our levels of government debt low relative to the rest of the world. We've seen the economy grow by about 7 per cent since Covid began. I don't apologise for that," Grant Robertson said.