Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): It's a great pleasure to rise in the debate and my member—my member?—my fellow member on this side of the House—Kieran McAnulty: What a marvellous member.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Exactly. I won't go there. My colleague was just reaching a crescendo and then—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Cut off in his prime.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: —you cut him off at the knees as it were. Few would know. But it is a pleasure to stand in reply in this debate today and to acknowledge all members who have spoken in the debate. This is the opportunity that the Minister of Finance has at the end of the Budget debate to be able to respond to a few of those who have spoken before me. I do need to address some of the issues raised by the Opposition in their speeches. I couldn't agree more than with my colleague Kieran McAnulty about the fact that there were a range of views expressed by the Opposition. Some said we were spending too much some said we were spending too little. Some members said that in the same speech.One of those was the Hon Paul Goldsmith who managed to say that we were simultaneously opening up too slowly moving too fast not spending enough spending too much not helping small businesses helping the wrong types of small businesses. It was a confused offering but I did note that Mr Goldsmith managed to attend the launch of Nick Smith's campaign in the weekend and played the piano. The song he chose to play was Rocket Man". I do think that's probably appropriate in many ways because it has a very long chorus which many of you will know: "And I think it's going to be a long long time." And I think it's going to be a very very long long time before Mr Goldsmith finds himself on this side of the aisle.But he's not alone in that. Todd Muller also had a very important speech at the weekend. Many have noted the upside down flying of the tino rangatiratanga flag. That's well known as an international distress signal so he was reaching out across the aisle to the Labour-led Government to the New Zealand First Party and the Green Party who formed this Government with us to say "I need your help." He clearly did because all of the ideas in his speech were ones that this Government has put in place. In fact Mr Muller even reached back into history for that and said that it was Michael Joseph Savage who'd done a tremendous job of pulling the country out of the Great Depression. So I can only agree with Mr Muller that it is a Labour Government supported by New Zealand First and the Greens that is the right Government to get us through the other end of this crisis.In Budget 2020 we sought to build on the response phase of our plan to deal with COVID-19. I do want to again place on record our thanks to the team of 5 million but to some pretty important members of that team—our essential workers and in particular within our essential workers a hard working group of public servants who kept the Government going during level 4. One of those groups of people were the people who put together the Budget. It was put together without actually being able to be physically in their offices but they managed to do that and I do want to put on record the incredible efforts of those public servants.Another group are the staff members from the Ministry of Social Development who have processed the applications for the wage subsidy scheme so quickly that some people could not believe it. Some people have been paid for the extension of the scheme within six hours of applying. Madam Speaker I know you've worked closely with those officials and they work hard and they were absolutely brilliant in these circumstances. When we compare that response to the rest of the world we can see that we got money into the pockets of New Zealanders gave cash flow and confidence to businesses and supported people to be able to put food on the table. That $11 billion that has ended up being paid out of the first phase of the wage subsidy scheme is something all New Zealanders can be proud of the fact we looked after one another in a moment of crisis. I think it is something we will look back on with pride indeed. In addition to that obviously we've now seen the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme being developed to make sure there is working capital for our businesses to spend on paying the rent and the utilities or just to give the confidence that they can pay their bills and the various tax measures that have been put in place to ease that burden and give tax refunds.Something we haven't talked about enough I believe is actually the support we've given to the aviation industry to keep flights going for our exporters in particular. We did run the risk in the early days of this that we were not going to have air routes available for our freight. The Government stepped in. We're supporting more than 50—I think towards 100—flights now a week that actually has made sure we've had those air freight routes. That's been well and truly welcomed by those in the export sector.But as my colleague Louisa Wall said this Budget began the focus now on the recovery and the rebuild phases. It is vitally important that we do not allow New Zealanders to be left behind in that recovery. It's why we extended the wage subsidy scheme. It's why we put in place the COVID income relief payment to cushion that blow of the loss of work on those people who have lost jobs as a result of COVID-19. And it's why we've now got the focus on the industries and the sectors that will grow the jobs that we need in the rebuild: that is in infrastructure that is in construction that is supporting our small businesses.It's amazing that we talk about the big numbers the billions in a Budget but often it is those small things that make a difference. The fund we've established for small and medium enterprises to offer e-commerce to put themselves on a website to get themselves online are practical things that small-business people want. The fact we've already got people working in the Jobs for Nature Fund people out there supporting us in pest control making sure that we're looking after our streams and our rivers. We can do practical things that actually create jobs in the moment as well as the big picture things like construction and infrastructure that take us forward.But also in the tourism sector—and we've had a lot of questions and conversations about the tourism sector. The tourism sector is going to be affected for some time. I want to give credit to my colleague Kelvin Davis who has exhaustively consulted and listened to that sector and established a fund that is now being used to protect our critical assets like the Waitomo caves like Whale Watch Kaikoura but also to support—he said today—550 businesses to transition themselves to a new era to focus on domestic terrorism to look at what they can do to repackage the offering that they have. That is again practical support keeping people in work helping to create new jobs.There is support for horticulture for agriculture for the arts and sports and I do want to mention that because those sectors are the ones that bind our communities together. They also offer jobs and employment to thousands of New Zealanders. But we saw at the weekend with the start of Super Rugby Aotearoa the way in which our communities come together around the sports around arts and we have supported those organisations so they know they have income which has dried up from their usual sources of sponsorship and of the community trusts that support them. All of those sectors are getting support.But the one that I want to spend a bit of time on because it highlights the link between the recovery and the rebuild for the long term is the investment in skills and training—the fact that out of this crisis we have emerged with a policy that creates free apprenticeships across the board and creates free trade training in areas as diverse as community care and mental health right through to manufacturing and construction. That's legacy building. That's what will make the difference and it's what didn't happen after the global financial crisis (GFC) because after the GFC what we saw was people bailing out not having their apprentices letting them go not taking on more people. We're not going to let that happen so that's why we're putting in a subsidy to support employers to keep their apprentices on. It's why we're boosting the trade academies and we're giving opportunity across the board. In the construction sector we know that matters because after the GFC when the recovery came there wasn't the skilled labour force that was needed. We're not going to let that happen. We're investing in the future of New Zealand to make sure that we have the skilled staff we have as we begin our recovery.As we look to the future of what we can do in our rebuild we do want to rebuild this country better. We want to make sure that as a country we take seriously the challenges that have always been there but have been highlighted more than ever in this. That includes in inequality. It's why initiatives like extending lunches in schools out to 200000 students matters. It's why it matters that we make sure that we have lifted benefits by $25 per week and doubled the winter energy payment.There is more to do in all of these areas just as there is in our sustainability agenda and just as there is in making New Zealand more productive but this Budget is one that responded to a one-in-100-year shock. It did so with a very large sum of money but it was the rainy day we had been saving for. We put the umbrella up to make sure that we protect all New Zealanders. We will come through this strong. We will come through it with an economy that is more productive is more sustainable and is more inclusive and we will do that in a way and at a pace that other countries won't have been able to do. That brings me back to the very beginning to thank all New Zealanders for their work and to ask them to support our recovery and rebuild as well."