Webb DuncanFinance and InfrastructureDr DUNCAN WEBB (Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee): A very fulsome introduction and thank you for that Mr Chairman. Look I'm very happy to report to the committee of the whole House on the reviews as the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and it's a real privilege I must say to hold that position. They were very interesting reviews. We took the finance sector as a whole in our report so we've presented to the House an exceedingly long but I think useful report and as is to be expected in that important committee it was a pretty robust but at the same time cooperative inquiry that we took into the various entities. It was very interesting to have the Minister of Finance in front of us to hear about the financial statements of the Government and he presented as always in his fine attire his excellent and insightful views. The financial statements of the Government are actually in really good shape. That's one of the things that came out and I think everyone in the House will accept that against forecast the Government is in good shape recognising that the economic downturn has been far less severe than forecast. The operating balance before gains and losses deficit was $10.5 billion less than what was forecast and core Crown revenue was $6.4 billion higher than forecast. Now I'll be honest and say that the questions of the Opposition were focused on debt and I think that's quite appropriate. But the interesting thing also was that the strength of the economy was not in particular sectors but it was broad-based. Some sectors obviously suffered more than others but in fact the economy overall is very strong. Again there was some focus on cost pressures strong demand supply chain disruption and other factors. More recently of course international events have seen inflation which was quite properly the focus of some attention. Debt levels are increasing and will continue to increase and the Minister may want to update us on current forecasts but at the time of the review debt was expected to get to about 40 percent of GDP. A good discussion was had about the Public Finance Act and prudent levels of debt and the fact that what is a prudent level of debt needs to be taken in context. In fact it was also very clear with Treasury that the appropriate approach and what was prudent—in fact it was prudent to increase debt in times of crisis to ensure that we didn't get into a spiral of contraction as well. There was some discussion around alternative monetary and fiscal policies and discussion around what the Reserve Bank was doing with large-scale assets. The Secretary to the Treasury stated that without the economy being supported by both monetary and fiscal policy—monetary policy obviously the Reserve Bank; fiscal policy Treasury and the Minister of Finance—there could have been a severe economic contraction widespread unemployment and GDP growth remaining very low and our unemployment alone of course shows us that that didn't transpire. Treasury was also very keen to talk to us about clusters and the way it wanted to increase the effectiveness of the Public Service by using collaboration and strategic alignment across multiple agencies and also to ensure there's a much longer-term and intergenerational view and to enhance the value-for-money reporting. A couple of other things I will touch on in this brief contribution. The Reserve Bank took some time to stress its work around climate change—that was something which we found very interesting—and the need to recognise climate change not just as a very significant environmental question but one that will affect financial stability as it affects asset prices and the economy more generally. The Inland Revenue Department was very proud of its Business Transformation project. It's a good example of under this Government a focus on effectiveness and efficiency delivering cumulative benefits by its IT upgrade of $495 million. Also I want to recognise—and it was focused—the work that IRD and other agencies have done in delivering a whole lot of programmes to relieve the effects of COVID-19. I'm sure the Minister through questioning will have a lot more to say on these great initiatives.