Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Mr Speaker thank you very much. And I thank the Finance and Expenditure Committee for their consideration of the Budget Policy Statement and for their report that we have in front of us in the House here today.This will be the fourth Wellbeing Budget that this Government has put forward and we continue to have a focus on making sure we have more joined-up services that we think intergenerationally and that we make sure that we focus on the evidence-based issues that were identified in that first Wellbeing Budget in 2019. In addition for this year in Budget 2022 we have three main priorities: that is firstly to continue to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19; secondly to accelerate the recovery and the rebuild from the impacts of COVID-19; and to lay strong foundations for the future—including addressing issues such as our climate change response housing affordability and child poverty.The Budget Policy Statement draws on the Treasury's half-yearly economic and fiscal update and that did—in December—indicate a very strong fiscal picture which continues albeit with the new challenges that have come upon us in 2022. What that Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows is that the Government's books will go back into surplus in 2023/24—significantly earlier than forecast and significantly better than we have seen in other times when the crises have hit the country and New Zealand has been impacted that way. That is down to the disciplined careful and balanced approach that we are taking to the economy and the hard work of New Zealanders in making sure that we have rebounded from COVID-19 very well.Also as has already been mentioned net core Crown debt is now forecast to peak at 40.1 percent of GDP—again much higher than New Zealanders have been used to seeing but comparatively still amongst some of the lowest levels of public debt in the OECD. As a country New Zealand is well positioned fiscally to be able to manage a shock like COVID-19. As we have also discussed the Crown's core tax revenue has increased as more people have been in work as the economy has grown. At the same time we have been careful about the expenses that the Government is putting out there. We are up around the 35 percent of GDP level—that is a similar level to what the National Government had when they were coming out of the Canterbury earthquakes and the global financial crisis. But we bring that back down again to around 30 percent of GDP by the end of the forecast period. Again a careful and a balanced approach to making sure that we look after New Zealanders we invest in addressing the big challenges that are facing us but we also have a mind to the future generations and what debts we leave them.The two big focus areas that I highlighted in the Budget Policy Statement are indeed in health and in climate change. There is a one-off operating allowance of $6 billion in this Budget. That is because as I've stated on the day that we released the Budget Policy Statement the major restructuring of New Zealand's health system requires a significant reset within the health Budget and to make sure that we set that health system off on a stable path. This is a significant and important reform to ensure that New Zealanders get the healthcare services that they need and deserve. We want to end the postcode lottery of healthcare. The Opposition finance spokesperson said that DHBs thought this would be disruptive; well it certainly is disruptive to the DHB model because we are getting rid of it because we're actually moving to the Health New Zealand and Māori Health Authority model which will mean that we can provide consistent quality of services to New Zealanders wherever they live. And it is also those iniquities that every New Zealander knows exists in the health system that we are trying to address through this. I am extremely proud that this Budget will fund the Māori Health Authority so that we finally once and for all ensure that health services deliver for Māori in New Zealand. Equally other populations in New Zealand who have suffered from those inequities including in rural areas also can look forward to a system that actually makes sure that they get the support that they need as well.We also will have a dedicated public health agency within the Ministry of Health that would learn the lessons of COVID-19. This will be a multi-year funding pathway for the health system and it will deliver better health services to New Zealanders. This is an investment many decades in the making and the one-off allowance takes that into account.The other quite unique element of this Budget is the creation of the Climate Emergency Response Fund another multi-year fund. This is where we are recycling the revenue of the emissions trading scheme directly towards emissions reductions initiatives. This House has a serious responsibility to support New Zealand in meeting the climate change targets that we have set. Not only is that important for the health of our planet and the health of our people it is also where economic opportunity lies for New Zealand. And so the Climate Emergency Response Fund will be used to make sure that not only do we meet those targets but that we seize those opportunities. This is a fund that is outside of the Budget allowances it is hypothecated—to use the technical term—it's designed to target and make sure that we are making progress on meeting those emissions reductions plans. Alongside the formation of the justice and natural resource clusters this is all part of our public finance modernisation approach to move away from the single-year siloed budgeting approach which makes it difficult for Governments to address complex problems. We are now addressing that directly by having multi-year funding and joining agencies together with clear priorities that they agree. This is an important step forward in this Budget and the Budget Policy Statement I believe does show that we are continuing along the path of wellbeing. What the Budget Policy Statement doesn't do is that it doesn't set out on a path that would mean New Zealand was unable to afford investments in health and education and in housing in future years. We have chosen very deliberately over the course of the last couple of years to make sure that we support those on low and middle incomes to be able to deal not only with COVID but now the period of time we have with high inflation caused as it is by significant global supply constraints and the increasing cost of oil—which has been exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.What we have heard from the Opposition is that they somehow or other think that they can take some funding out of the operating allowance the one-off $6 billion operating allowance and then magically not have to deal with the consequences of those decisions in future Budgets. That is simply not true. It's not how Government budgeting works. Those costs carry on and the Leader of the Opposition said he wants to carry on with those tax changes. He also—I think—wants to get rid of the Government's 39c tax rate. We've had a bit of coming and going about that in the last few days but it does appear to still be the Opposition's policy to do that. They also want to reverse the changes that the Government has made to make it easier for first-home buyers to afford to buy a first home in terms of interest deductibility and the brightline test. They also want to get rid—Simeon Brown: That doesn't help one bit.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON:—Mr Brown I'm coming to you—of the Auckland regional fuel tax which would mean Mr Brown would have to return that photograph of him at the Eastern Busway which is funded out of that; so that's gone. And when we add all of those things up we come to a $3 billion bill according I see to Thomas Coughlan who was in the New Zealand Herald today a $3 billion bill in Budget 2024—and that's the total of the new spending allowance that is available. So once again the National Party think they can promise everything but they can't. They cannot promise to cut taxes to reduce debt and to increase spending. That is the fiscal Bermuda Triangle—that's where Paul Goldsmith fell down and unfortunately for Christopher Luxon and Simon Bridges that's where they are falling into that once again because it's not possible.Every single Government has to make tough decisions trade-offs when it comes to putting a Budget together and we believe we have the balance right. Because in this Budget we are lifting the incomes of low and middle income earners. We have the family tax credit that very nearly 350000 families will benefit from increases in we have increased the minimum wage we have lifted the incomes of those on benefits. We've done that because we know those are the communities most affected by increases in inflation and increases in the cost of living. What we don't need and what this Budget won't do is deliver an enormous tax cut to people on the highest incomes because what that would do would be a sign of the priorities of a Government that felt that rewarding those on the highest incomes was more important than making sure that we support and protect those on low and middle incomes and we actually have decent health services a decent education system that we actually build houses for New Zealanders.Those are the things we have to be getting on with. We've got to be getting ahead of issues around climate change to make sure that we meet those challenges and we seize those opportunities. The Budget has to be a balance of all of those things while keeping our fiscal position strong. That is what the Government has achieved over the last four years while supporting people through COVID-19 and that is what this Budget will deliver. The recipe that the National Party are putting forward will make things worse for New Zealand. This Budget will make things better for New Zealanders.