Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Well thank you Mr Speaker. The only person who enjoyed that speech more than me was Christopher Luxon to be honest because he was looking and thinking OK as I'm putting the ticket together—me and Simon Bridges my finance spokesperson and deputy—I can now do it without any concern or care in the world." That speech was a little bit like those fridge magnets you get with a whole lot of different words and you just reorder them and then just read them out in any random order whatsoever. I wasn't here for all of the debate on Air New Zealand but I would have enjoyed Mr Luxon's contribution. He was crying out for the kind of letter that I wrote to Air New Zealand when he was chief executive so he would know for certain that he shouldn't be shutting down all of those regional routes that he shut down when he was chief executive. He would have known for sure he shouldn't shut down those regional routes. I look forward to hearing from Mr Luxon later in the debate.The Budget Policy Statement this year was a unique document not just because of its most excellent photography on the front cover which cost the taxpayer zero dollars and was I believe an excellent way for the document to be put to the public but it was also unique because this is the first time that the clause in the Public Finance Act was exercised that allowed the Government to de-link the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from the Budget Policy Statement. The reason that we did that was because we are going through one of the most uncertain and volatile times that the New Zealand economy has ever—or has certainly seen in my lifetime and has hardly ever seen before. We wanted to give ourselves the maximum amount of time to be able to put a Budget Policy Statement together that recognised the volatility that is in the global economy.As we stand here today it does bear pausing for a moment when we think about this Budget Policy Statement and the Budget that will come and flow from it—the position the fortunate position New Zealand finds itself in through the hard work of the team of 5 million. Just this morning if you wanted to read the daily update of what's happening with COVID around the world you would see that in the Netherlands they've just reintroduced a night-time curfew France has gone into another form of lockdown Thailand's increasing the restrictions that it has—all of these countries around the world who are struggling to get towards the form of normality that New Zealand has actually had for the vast bulk of the last year. So as we look at the world that we're living in the level of uncertainty and volatility that we have to put a Budget together in has never been higher. So when I look at Budget 2021 and this Budget Policy Statement that leads into it there are essentially three core elements to it and they are the three themes that were given in the Speech from the Throne: to keep New Zealanders and continue to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19; to accelerate our economic recovery and rebuild; and to get on with addressing the major issues around child wellbeing around housing and around climate change. When we think about that issue of keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 I was interested in Mr Bayly's remark about how he compares where New Zealand is at in that regard. The IMF Bloomberg and the Lowy Institute have all ranked New Zealand's response to COVID-19 among the best in the world and that is because from day one we took the approach that the best approach for the economy was also a strong public health approach. The two can't be de-linked. Mr Bayly can talk about Ireland but we know that Ireland has had deaths in huge amounts greater than New Zealand and an economy that's stopped and started and has locked itself down over time. We have been able to have a consistent approach here in New Zealand built on that strong public health approach but also built on two core principles for business: that of cash flow and of confidence. Everything we have done in terms of the supports we have provided have been built around the idea of cash flow and confidence and that will continue to be the way we approach achieving that theme of keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19. We did it when we saw the resurgence in Auckland and we were able to deploy the new resurgence support payment that we had there as well as the wage subsidy scheme. We did that because we had been careful with our COVID response and recovery fund. We hadn't done as we had been urged by those on the opposite side of the House to just spend it all just spend it all right now not worry about that not have money in the kitty. So we were able to do that and we will continue to do that. Hon Michael Woodhouse: What?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Well Mr Woodhouse I debated your former finance spokesperson. I was the person who looked through the numbers in the alternative budget from the National Party to see that that money was being spent on other matters. This Government has taken the responsible approach of having money held back for COVID and for resurgences and that has stood us in great stead and allows us to continue to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19.But what the Budget also does—the Budget Policy Statement and the Budget that flows from it will do—is accelerate our economic recovery and rebuild. We've done that by our massive investment in infrastructure—over $40 billion over five years going into making sure that we have the infrastructure that we need for a modern New Zealand. That does not only do the job we want it to do to reduce congestion to be able to build more houses but it keeps people in work. One of the main goals of this Government has been to keep unemployment down during this COVID period and we have succeeded. We now see unemployment under 5 percent compared to the rest of the world—the OECD average of around 6.4 percent even 6.9 percent I believe over in Australia. So we have here in New Zealand a record of making sure that our recovery actually builds jobs and takes people with us. But now we begin the process of reconnecting with the world. The trans-Tasman bubble gives us that opportunity to see tourists come in to make sure they're there. All the while we've connected with the world through our exports which have continued to go out supported by the Government's support scheme for aviation services. But now we have that process building up of making sure that we will see our tourism sector start to move forward. Minister Stuart Nash—as indicated in the Budget Policy Statement we know that there are sectors that will continue to need support and that includes the tourism sector and Minister Nash has already given an outline of where that will go. We've also had the housing package announced which is a critical part of making sure we build that stock of housing that contributes so much to our wellbeing but also to our infrastructure and to job creation. So accelerating the recovery and rebuild is critical. Then thirdly are the big issues of our time: how we make sure that we improve child wellbeing how we make sure that we get on top of the housing crisis and how we make sure that we have a response to climate change that is progressive and modern and puts us at the forefront of countries who are not only addressing the challenge that faces future generations but finding the opportunities within that for job creation for investment in our regions. That will be a major focus of the Budget. Backing up that are three major reform programmes that this Government has under way: the reform of our planning rules the reform of water and the reform of our health system. These are three critical underpinning aspects of what will make all of those major goals for the Government work. If you put that agenda together—around climate change around child wellbeing around housing affordability around health around water and around planning—you have a massive ambitious programme of work to make sure that New Zealand can thrive both socially and economically into the future. The Budget is going to be focused around building off all of those things. For New Zealand as we look to this Budget Policy Statement we have to make sure that the balance—the careful balance—that we have struck around fiscal management continues throughout the next few years. I heard my colleague Duncan Webb just as I was coming into the House talk about the importance of not adopting austerity policies because the thing that would take New Zealand backwards would be to believe that having saved for the rainy day and then used the money when the rainy day arrived—to suddenly think that we can click our fingers and go back to where we were and that that will not damage the social fabric of New Zealand is plain wrong but it does seem to be what we're hearing from the Opposition. So Andrew Bayly mimicking the bored cat—he wanted the borders open; he wanted the borders closed. He also wanted us to borrow more and borrow less at the same time. I invite National Party speakers when they get up to tell us: do they approve of the borrowing programme? And if they don't what goes? What's not going to happen? What's going to get cut in order to bring that debt level back down right down to where it was before we went in?Of course we will continue on a path of debt reduction. It is the right thing to do and that path is laid out in the Budget Policy Statement. Of course we will make sure that we continue to work towards a sustainable surplus. We will do all of those things because that is the right thing to do and that is the balance but it has to be balanced against investment in our people in public services in education in health and housing. So the National Party can't have it both ways. Either we borrowed the money and it was the right thing to do or they want to make sure we go back to austerity. They're the two options in front of the National Party. On this side of the House we are absolutely convinced of the strategy that sits inside this Budget Policy Statement. It is a strategy of a balanced approach that invests in our infrastructure that supports the core public services that we need and that has a plan for making sure that we address climate change and gives our young people our children a future. I'm proud of the Budget Policy Statement and I look forward to delivering the Budget in May."