Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (DeputyChairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee): Thank you Mr Chair. Look it's a real privilege to stand and introduce these thoughts and on behalf of our Finance and Expenditure Committee chair Barbara Edmonds. Our committee turned our minds with Vote Revenue to how the Government's refresh of fiscal strategy would promote a stable economy and also sustainable debt levels. It was also important for us to know how the approach of Vote Revenue is consistent or not with the operating balance. We note in our report that nominal GDP is climbing and tax relief measures are continuing to decline. Therefore tax revenue for the 2024-25 forecast will grow significantly from $105 billion to $123 billion. And I would note that that actually gets us back into surplus in the 2024 fiscal year which is about a year quicker than National did after the global financial crisis. Now the Minister spoke to us about a busy ministry. It was busy dealing with COVID-19 and support for small business including the cash-flow scheme—$2.27 billion was paid out to 128000 customers and $455 million of that has been repaid so far. The Minister also told us about the IRD's own Business Transformation Programme and we wanted to know whether it was meeting its objectives of modernisation and simplification. We heard that in May this year the IRD annual run of income tax assessments went through 2.5 million automatic assessments and that $613 million was refunded which was an enormous change compared with what used to be possible under the old technology. Another thing keeping the ministry busy has been changes to policy. So we heard about increased disclosures for domestic trusts to support the integrity of the new top tax rate; ongoing work on the new interest limitation for residential property; a big deal of work on the cost of living payments—$350 per week for earners up to $70000 who weren't eligible for the winter energy payment; the new child support policy change that will impact 41500 sole parent families next year; but also work on getting more data on the wealthiest households—so understanding what the effective tax rate being paid is. We heard that New Zealand has some of the best data in the world on wages and salaries but poor information on irregular capital income. And we do note that the Minister said categorically the ministry was doing no work nor had plans to do work on any new taxes. We interrogated questions around bracket creep and heard that data on irregular capital income is likely to be more useful in terms of Government income and also equity and the four principles were discussed—horizontal and vertical equity efficiency for the Government and taxpayers and that whatever is done should minimise distortions. We heard that automatically adjusting for bracket creep during a pandemic would make responding more clumsy and that the Tax Working Group had not recommended such changes because of the unpredictable nature of external events exactly like we've seen with COVID and then the war in Ukraine. The Minister also mentioned that the drivers are correct as they are. For example unemployment is at a record 3.3 percent against expectations that it could reach above 10 percent. So he offered that as an explanation for saying that bracket creep was something that was already being managed correctly with the right drivers. We also heard that the temporary loss carry-back scheme for business during COVID would have big fiscal implications but that could be considered in the event of another significant shock. When it came to the cost of living payment there were questions asked around the bureaucracy that was involved to administer those. The Minister made the point that the 300 short-term staff employed in the short term needs to be considered in the context of staff levels being at 6000 five years ago to 4000 IRD staff currently. And we also heard that the payment is a short immediate response and therefore looking at bringing it into the long term was not something that was being considered—that the cost of living issues were happening now. In considering this the committee considered also the context of the COVID pandemic the overseas pressures such as the war in Ukraine and that debt levels coming out of that for New Zealand are projected to be half that of Australia and a third of that in the UK. And the final comment really was that the Minister gave very sincere thanks to the IRD and the Ministry of Social Development and spoke at length about how they'd worked hard together to be able to get money out the door to New Zealanders at a time of crisis. I think that's a sentiment that is shared by our committee and so we would like to add our thanks to that of the Minister. Thank you.