Shaw JamesHon JAMES SHAW (Associate Minister of Finance): I felt it encumbant to pick up at this particular point starting off with the comments of the previous speaker the Rt Hon David Carter because I feel that I ought to given that it has been brought into this debate despite the fact that it is actually not part of the period of time being reviewed. But because it was brought into the debate by the previous speaker actually it is important to point out that the provincial growth fund that the Hon Shane Jones is responsible for is one of the most important tools that this Government has at its disposal to ensure the redevelopment and regeneration in the regions in the future. As we seek to transition to a low-carbon economy I want to point out that last week the Hon Shane Jones was up in the Taranaki putting in place a number of investments to help that region transition to a low-carbon economy. That is not a slush fund. That is the single-greatest investment in our regions in the last generation and I just wanted to make that point to the previous speaker. I'd also like to refer to some of the comments made earlier by the Hon Amy Adams. She referred to having left the economy in a strong state. She referred to an annual GDP growth rate of around 3 percent and a fiscal surplus of $1.5 billion and then appealed to Treasury that it should not be engaging in any more work on the Living Standards Framework but rather to retain a narrow focus on a very few set of economic indicators and not to take account of the wider picture of what was going on in the New Zealand economy in the environment and in society. It is exactly that kind of thinking that has led to the parlous state of so much of our environment and our social deficit that this new Government is being presented with and that is why—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Who passed the environment reporting Act? Hon JAMES SHAW: Given that Mr Smith is making an intervention about environmental reporting Mr Smith when I received that report I went through it and said Well this is very interesting information. Why is there for example nothing in here about waste? Surely we have data about waste?"—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Can we come back to the sector please? Hon JAMES SHAW: We may. CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Thank you. Hon JAMES SHAW: I was merely responding to an intervention from the Opposition. I shall return to the finance and administration review debate. My point was that the Hon Amy Adams was suggesting that Treasury should retain a narrow focus on a few set of economic indicators and not confuse itself with this airy-fairy social and environmental stuff that she seems to think is what the Living Standards Framework is all about. It is exactly that narrow kind of thinking that has led to the parlous state of our environment and a number of our key social areas today. Only the other day the Sydney Morning Herald reported that British Petroleum had suggested that an oil spill would be a great boon to regional economies in Western Australia if there was an oil spill as a result of its offshore activities in a report in 2016 because of the amount of money that would have to go into the local economy to manage the clean-up costs. That is the kind of thinking that just focusing on GDP leads you to because all GDP is is a measure of throughput. That's all it is. It's like saying that the point of life is blood right—that the point of life the reason for being the reason for existence is to have blood flowing through your veins—because that's what GDP is. It's just throughput. It accounts for things that are bad like oil spills as well as things that are good. It makes no distinction between those two things. That is why it is important that at the centre of our economic thinking we have a much more nuanced a much more comprehensive much more sophisticated way of looking at the economy—not as a narrow focus on just gross domestic product but on a broader set of indicators that actually say what is actually going on here. As the Associate Minister of Finance with the specific delegation for that project—for developing that set of measures—I am delighted to be able to pick up on the work that Treasury was speaking about at the review in front of select committee in recent weeks because it is vitally important to this country's future. It's important because it gives us an early warning sign that says "Actually you might want to pay attention now to some things. Otherwise you will be trying to clean up our rivers in 20 years' time." So I just wanted to make those points because I think it is important in this debate not to lose sight of that."