Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I thank the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Dr Duncan Webb for both that fulsome report back and also for the questions he thought I might like to address—and I'll endeavour to do as much of that as I possibly can.Obviously as the member has stated this is a new process for us all. It's a little bit different from the other committee stage process we've been doing most recently where it's the question-and-answer thing; people are able to either do that or give some form of speech—it's up to them. In this first intervention I plan to just make a few general comments about where we are in terms of the economy with respect to the annual review and as I say pick up any questions as they go through the process.I think the very first thing to say is that when we came to do the annual review debate we were in possession then of the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update. And when we took the time to compare that to where the Treasury thought we would be when they produced the pre-election fiscal update only a matter of three or four months beforehand the differences were already stark. And that goes to illustrate the point that we are living through an environment of uncertainty and volatility at the moment.COVID-19 is the most significant economic shock of my lifetime and indeed I think of most other people's in this House. It is one that has had an enormous impact in every part of the world and in every part of the economy. However the extent of that impact in New Zealand has been less than was forecast. And that comes down to the hard work of New Zealand businesses and workers supported by the Government.The chair of the select committee mentioned the wage subsidy scheme. I do just want to put on record—he was very kind to some Treasury officials who did work very hard in producing the wage subsidy scheme—the appreciation of the Government to particularly the staff of the Ministry of Social Development who were the people who made sure that applications were turned around rapidly. I do recall in the election campaign in Featherston—just to mention the electorate of Wairarapa for the benefit of the Government's senior whip—a person pulling up in a ute jumping out coming over to me shaking my hand and saying You saved my business." What he actually meant was that the wage subsidy scheme had saved his business because he had lost all of his orders all in the space of about 24 hours was looking to lay people off and was given the confidence and the cash flow to be able to get through. That was the point of the wage subsidy scheme. This period of time that the annual review covers marks the most extraordinary period for the Government's finances that I can recall. We were in a position where we needed to borrow a significant amount of money to ensure we protected the lives and livelihoods of New Zealanders and we did it. I do not resile from that position. There were no costless decisions in COVID-19. The decisions we took were to ensure that we did not have the loss of lives that we did not have the loss of businesses. We took that decision. And on behalf of taxpayers we did use the fact that the country had saved for a rainy day. That rainy day arrived and I'm very proud of what we did.In the period of time that followed on from that we were told that we could expect unemployment to get anywhere between 13 percent and 26 percent—at about exactly this time last year I was being told that. That did not occur. Again I believe that is in part because we moved and acted so swiftly. When I look at other countries around the world we find ourselves with unemployment at about 4.9 percent new numbers out this week; Australia the equivalent about 5.6 percent; and the OECD average well over 6 percent. One of the reasons I believe for that is because we got our support out quickly. It meant that people didn't take precipitous decisions and so that has certainly stood us in good stead.On the more traditional ratings ways in which we manage the economy around GDP New Zealand certainly experienced a sharp dip that we expected in the June quarter but then a very very large rise in the September quarter and a flattening out in the December quarter. When we look at that overall and compare ourselves quarter to quarter December 2019 to December 2020 New Zealand's drop was one of the lowest of the countries that we compare ourselves to—lower than Australia lower than the US and lower than the UK.And on top of all of that we've had external validation of this from the ratings agencies. So we had Standard & Poor's who gave New Zealand the first ratings upgrade from the pandemic's outset also the first for New Zealand since 2003 up to AA3. And we had Moody's reinforce New Zealand's A3 rating based on the robustness of both our fiscal position and the way in which our public policy position has rolled out.So in this period of time I'm very proud of the response that has been undertaken."