Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Just before I answer the member's question and indeed pick up some of Mr Bayly's comments I do want to take the opportunity he's offered to reflect on the extraordinary contribution of Brian Corban to public life in New Zealand. He's chaired a number of the major State-owned enterprises and entities that we have seen including Radio New Zealand for an example and most recently in KiwiRail. Brian was an absolute gentleman someone I'm sure people on both sides of the House have had a lot of contact with and we greatly mourn his passing most recently.In terms of the questions that the members asked I mean I do find it difficult to reconcile" is the short answer to the member's question because one of the reasons we tend to look at these external bodies like Standard and Poor's like Moody's like the Fitch Ratings agencies is that they are objective. They don't have any particular axe to grind one way or the other when it comes to what's happening in the economy. And what they have seen is a picture of a country that like all countries around the world is being tested by COVID-19. And what they have said is that our systems of Government the robustness of our finances the robustness of our policies stands up to that. And while like any Government in the world they will look and they will find areas where we could improve or things that we could do that we might want to change overall their assessment is that this country—and I want to be careful to stress this as I did in my opening contribution. This is a tribute to the businesses and workers of New Zealand. That's who got us through this in COVID. They were supported by a Government that acted swiftly and decisively but it is a tribute to those people and we are very proud of all New Zealanders in the role that they played. So from our perspective the economy is doing well.What I think—and this brings together Mr Bayly and Mr O'Connor's comments and questions. What I think we've got to be aware of is we are performing better—far better in fact—against forecast. But bear in mind that the forecast was a very very dark situation for New Zealand. And so we've got to be a little bit careful about making sure that we're aware that we're coming back from there. We're still not back to where we were and we won't be for some time. Also the volatility of the COVID-19 situation does go on Mr Bayly. COVID's not finished and we only need to watch the news every single night to see that. Nor is the economic impact of COVID yet finished as countries around the world the Government support starts to come off and that's places like the UK where they've kept their equivalent of wage subsidy the furlough scheme going and going and going. As those supports do inevitably start to dissipate in countries around the world that will have a flow-on effect on the global economy let alone the uncertainty of the immediate health impacts. So COVID is not over.In terms of the last comment that the member made around the business finance guarantee scheme and the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme I think it's a reasonably extraordinary idea that having written up a contract with the trading banks of New Zealand I'd just walk in and tear it up and say it's all over. I don't think that's a particularly good way to run our relationship with those banks. As it happens the business finance guarantee scheme as we have talked about in this House before didn't perform in the way that we had hoped at the beginning. I don't think the settings were quite right. So we went back and we changed those settings. That's what a Government that responds and listens does particularly when you're acting swiftly in a crisis. What we've seen in this calendar year in 2021 a little outside of the period that we're covering in the annual review here is actually that the uptake of that scheme has increased significantly as businesses having come out from the immediate impacts of the level 4 level 3 shutdowns in New Zealand have now been more prepared to borrow more prepared to take on debt and banks—particularly a couple of the banks—have really pushed out into that market and done that lending and I think that's a good thing because it helps those businesses continue to thrive.In terms of the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme and the extension of that I have to say that on that score bear in mind they're loans. So while albeit at a discounted interest rate they're still loans. Those small businesses are the very businesses that unfortunately find it harder to get access to capital to be able to get banks to take on their innovations their new ideas. So actually that scheme's been a roaring success. Right around New Zealand we've seen businesses particularly those microbusinesses able to take up that financing and I think that's done a lot of good for keeping people in employment and keeping those businesses going."