Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Thank you Mr Chair. I put it to the committee to get ready for a roller-coaster ride of excitement and a commitment from New Zealand First to work with Labour in this Government. Let me speak to the Finance and Expenditure Committee's report on the financial statements. This is a Government that is doing incredible things in a time in the world where the rest of the world's economies are a little bit shaky. They're only a little bit shaky but the good news is our economy is projected to outperform them as we go forward. It's projected to outperform them and I put it to you that one of the reasons for that is this Government is one that's committed to our international engagements around the world. I speak of recent reports and statistics from our trade. The Minister for Trade and Export Growth was able to bring to this House some of the best trade statistics this country has seen in a very very long time and that is cause for immeasurable celebration. In a time where world economies are slowing down we're bucking the trend. We have businesses out there who are doing the hard yards who are employing good Kiwis especially in the regions—and hopefully I'll get time to come to that—and who are employing good people in our regions and doing good work all the while supported and I commend the Minister in the chair Grant Robertson because this Government has run the surpluses has run to the 20 percent confines that it has set upon itself and is running a good Budget. We have achieved a lot in that time. Already I'm at the halfway mark so I'd better tell the listening public what some of those achievements are. Unemployment in New Zealand is at its lowest in nearly its entire history. It is an economy that is going incredibly strongly and add to that those jobs are jobs where we are optimising labour utilisation so engagement is better and higher and people are getting paid more. People are getting paid more. All the while I think the statistic from just this quarter was 20000 more jobs in this quarter alone and whilst wages are increasing whilst there are more people working and contributing to this economy to our exports and to making New Zealand that export nation which we so proudly hold to in terms of our place in the world. The wellbeing package: New Zealand First and I in particular—I used to study wellbeing economics so it is a pleasure to see New Zealand at the forefront of the world actually where our Budget is a commitment to the four wellbeings of our economy. The commitment to that speaks to the fundamental change that this Government has brought to New Zealand in that we're asking the question beyond strong GDP growth which it is—2.8 percent is strong by world standards right now—and it's forecast to get better. We're making the commitment to ask that fundamental question: And so what?" What does that mean for all New Zealanders if the economy is growing? What does that mean to my family in Rotorua my cousins in Rotorua? What does it mean to people in Ōpōtiki or Gisborne—Simeon Brown: Their locus of control. FLETCHER TABUTEAU: —not just wherever that guy's from—sorry Mr Chairman—the member on the other side of the Chamber who's annoying me. That is the fundamental question—Simeon Brown: What is? FLETCHER TABUTEAU: —because we have to ask that. We have to say: how are we doing that? I come back for the benefit of the confused member opposite. One of those things is the minimum wage. Headline figures—to conclude this contribution—$17.70 an hour for the minimum wage. The average wage has gone up $65 per week. I got it wrong—I got it wrong big time: there are 70000 new jobs and unemployment is down to 4.2 percent. We have a lot to celebrate and I am incredibly pleased to have been able to be part of this debate."