SpeechHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin): Thank you Madam Speaker. Al salam alaikum. I do want to start my contribution by acknowledging the events of March 15 and the significant anniversary today and let those families of those who died know that we are still thinking of them in this Parliament. We are also thinking of those survivors the impact on the community and we send you our love and aroha. I want to acknowledge also the health professionals that I met that same day—well the next day—in Christchurch when I was the Minister of Health who worked with those families through the trauma and the atrocity of it all. The families of course will bear the challenges that come with those terrible events for their whole lives and I think it's appropriate that we acknowledge them here today in this debate.The debate that we find ourselves in is the Budget Policy Statement debate. It's an important one for this Parliament because the Budget itself shapes so much of what we do as lawmakers. It sets the structure of the Government's programme. It funds those activities that are new that need to be funded but it also provides the licence to continue funding existing activities of Government. It's an incredibly important process and an incredibly important part of what we do here in this Parliament. And it's against the backdrop of a global inflationary environment a predicted global downturn around the world fragility headwinds and so forth. And so when we had the Minister of Finance appear before the Finance and Expenditure Committee he acknowledged those things. And indeed in the foreword to the Budget Policy Statement they're quite explicitly recognised.But then on top of that of course the events locally in here in New Zealand the impact of the cyclone and the flooding have changed the game again and made it an even tougher Budget to deliver.The Government is determined to continue a prudent programme that reduces debt over time; is determined we heard from the Minister of Finance to make sure that we focus on the cost of living issues that are facing New Zealanders; and is determined to continue funding those things which every New Zealander needs to be sure to access when they need them like education healthcare and infrastructure. This is a Budget we heard that is about striking the right balance a fine balance in a tight environment where there are those global economic headwinds. Tough choices will have to be made and already some money has been put aside for new health initiatives for health cost pressures and $62 billion for infrastructure investment over the next five years. A priority for Budget 2023 is to keep the investment in education in health and in housing continuing.The Budget will continue to invest in Labour's economic plan to create the high-wage low-emissions economy that we know will provide economic security for New Zealand and New Zealanders in good times and bad.So it's built on strong foundations. We know the foundations of our economy here. Successive Governments have been careful to ensure we don't spend too much that our debt levels are lower than most in the in the world. It's extraordinary in fact how low our public debt is when you compare us to any of the countries we like to compare ourselves to.And I do want to acknowledge the Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson for his dedication to ensuring that we are prudent with the money that we have as Government and that we focus on the issues that affect New Zealanders in challenging financial times. He has been a fabulous finance Minister and I want to acknowledge also that I've had the privilege of working alongside him as an associate finance Minister in our first term in Government and had the experience of working with him as he developed the wellbeing framework that now shapes our Budgets to make sure that we have a longer-term vision of where the country is heading that we explain to New Zealanders where we want to take the country and what the objectives of our Budget spending are.These are things that have not been done historically in quite this way and indeed the world is very interested in how New Zealand is doing this. I remember going to the World Health Organization in Geneva and having conversations with the OECD about the wellbeing framework as it was being developed. They were very interested in New Zealand's pioneering efforts and indeed very encouraged and excited about these particular initiatives because they can see that this is where the world needs to head. We need to be sure that we understand the value of what we're doing that we are addressing those capitals that underpin it: the human capital the skills the education for our workforce; the social capital the social connections across our society that make for a decent society and connectedness as human beings; the natural capital the environment that underpins our wellbeing our health and our wealth—we need to understand those things better and understand how the decisions we make affect those things; and of course the financial and physical capital that traditionally is examined in Budget processes.And so I do want to really acknowledge the way in which the Minister of Finance has shaped the way we think about Budgets in this country through that wellbeing framework which has been adapted over time which has been informed by the science advisers across Government. The priorities we see in this Budget indeed are a development on the work of those science advisers the just transition the physical and mental wellbeing the future of work and the focus on Māori and Pacific peoples and child wellbeing were all priorities that have been informed by the advice of science and of people who advocate for the difference that Government can make.So I think the Minister of Finance has a big job ahead of him in these tight times but I also think he has the track record and the vision for carrying it through in a way that will support the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins as Prime Minister in delivering a Budget that will hit the mark that will prioritise on the things that are most important for New Zealanders right now in this time of a challenging cost of living crisis—but that will also prepare us for the future that we have ahead.I do have a couple of minutes so I do want to focus on the Budget Policy Statement per se which I do commend to anybody following this debate at home. I believe the cover photo is one that the Minister of Finance himself took. I hope that's true and I'm not misleading the Parliament on that—he has many skills. This arguably is but one of his skills and if that's not true he has many others. But this document itself is much more like a contemporary annual report. It lays out the vision for where the country should go. It used to be that Budget Policy Statements were just full of numbers. This has the numbers in it but it explains what they mean for New Zealanders where the country will head why we're prioritising the things we're prioritising and what we expect the outcomes to be and then a Government can be held to account to that and our population can know that it is represented in a way that represents and mirrors the priorities of that society.So I really want to take my hat off to the Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson for the work he's done in developing these Budget Policy Statements into something that I think we can all be proud of as a Government but also as New Zealanders to see ourselves reflected in the reporting documents of the Parliament.Before I close I do want to acknowledge the sound footing we are on when we come to this Budget. The operating allowance remains unchanged from that projected in the previous Budget. The credit agencies during this Government's time have upgraded New Zealand's credit rating and we've got amongst the lowest levels of debt in the developed world. We've got these record-low levels of unemployment that have endured during this time of Government. We have the 11th-lowest inflation in the OECD. I'm not saying that it's not affecting people at home because it is—it's a global inflationary pressure—but it is something that we are thinking of here in making sure we have the right basis to move from. And we see after-tax wages increasing over time. This will be a great Budget. I do want to acknowledge the Minister of Finance's leadership. I commend it to the House.