Arbuckle JamieJAMIE ARBUCKLE (NZ First): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the Budget Policy Statement and I just thank the last speaker the Hon David Seymour for his experience in laying out the content around the previous Government's spending and situations that we are now facing as a country going forward.Much of the Budget Policy Statement 2024 is focused on setting out the new fiscal strategy—and I would highlight that: the new" fiscal strategy. There is a new Government; there is a new way of thinking and we went through an election with this new strategy and we are now here to deliver it through the Budget Policy Statement.The Budget Policy Statement also sets out the new short-term intentions of the Government and the new long-term objectives. What I would say as a first time in this House over the last six to seven months is learning the processes as we go through—and looking forward to next Thursday to the Budget. That's going to be a real highlight of actually seeing how that all comes together. But this Budget Policy Statement the Minister of Finance came to the Finance and Expenditure Committee that I sit on and she was able to explain the vision going forward and she put forward what the Budget Policy Statement was all about and then we were able to question. It was actually quite an interesting time hearing the Opposition criticise a lot of what was actually said in this Budget Policy Statement. But to me it was quite clear we are looking at this new direction.What we did hear then—and we have heard from the other side of the House today—was a number of submissions and those submissions were varied. But what I must say is probably a lot of the submissions that were put forward to the Budget Policy Statement were basically really not looking at content. They were actually looking at it from an individual's point of view; from their organisation's point of view and going "Hey look at me. Make sure that we aren't forgotten in the Budget."Until we actually hear the Budget next Thursday we won't actually know that content around some of that spending. But what I would say is we did have the Taxpayers' Union and we did have a number of submitters that did come forward and go "Actually this strategy is the right way and this is a good way; a good step forward." They could actually see going into the Budget that this will actually comply. There were a lot of different questions around the Public Finance Act whether this complied with that Act—and yes it does.So as we just heard from the last speaker the Budget Policy Statement sets out the key overarching goals of the coalition Government. We've heard it's about building a stronger more productive economy that lifts real incomes increases opportunities. We've seen that on the side of the House already in our intentions around primary industries to increase production. We're looking at increasing and doubling some of that primary industry in the next 10 years. We're seeing our foreign affairs Minister and our Prime Minister offshore promoting our country and opening avenues for us.Another key overarching goal was to deliver more efficient and effective and responsive public services. We've heard through the election campaign time and time again around restoring law and order. This is something this side of the House will do. We've heard about improving health outcomes and we've all got the stories to tell when we go to the hospital—about trying to get someone to see you and the wait times. We are going to make sure that that service is more effective and more efficient. Educational achievement: we've heard again how we're going to lift the achievement around education.Another overarching goal in this Budget Policy Statement is getting the books back in order and restoring discipline to public spending. The five priorities in the Budget what has been forecast is delivering tax reduction. We've heard a lot about tax reduction in this House and the constituents that are in my area are thrilled with the idea that they're going to be getting a tax cut. They can actually see some money in their pocket to actually pay for the cost of living.Identifying enduring savings: this Government is doing that and through the lunch programme like we have seen we can do that programme but actually save $100 million. That is incredible savings. We're improving the public services—I've just touched on that—and keeping tight control of Government spending. But importantly what I would like to highlight is that there is also a focus on developing a sustainable and long-term pipeline of infrastructure investment. What I would like to highlight in this document was the multi-year allowance that has been increased to $7 billion and infrastructure in this country is something that we need to make sure we're putting more investment in. And this document signals that.It's also important to consider—and Stuart Smith in opening outlined the context that this Government actually finds itself in. Critically the New Zealand economy is in a much weaker situation than we previously thought. The level of GDP in this document the economic scenario is showing a $42.8 billion lower forecast in the forecast period—that's $42.8 billion less in the nominal GDP. We're also looking at Crown tax revenue reducing by nearly $14 billion. So this Government on this side we have to make allowances and actually adjust our budgets for those scenarios. So the continued revisions to the country's economic outlook are having a negative impact on the Government's fiscal positions and we realise that and we are actually signalling that in this document.The difference also is I think the attitude of this Government compared to the last. The difference between the Government's revenue and the Government's spending has been in deficit since 2019-20 and it has been driven by an increase in the core Crown expenses. What I would like to say is it's a bit like running a household. Once you realise your expenditure is exceeding your income you've got to adjust—and the last Government was far too slow in doing that. This Government will get our spending back under control.The Government also sees debt as only necessary in three situations. It can be used as a smoothing device to allow automatic fiscal stabilisation such as a tax revenue and unemployment benefit spending to operate across the economic cycle or as a buffer in events of an economic shock. We understand around climate change that is actually what that's saying: that in situations of a shock we actually will use debt. It's also to fund the high-quality investments that provide benefits to New Zealand over time.It is great I think the announcements that have already been made. We've had those announcements around the Coastguard and the Surf Life Saving around that $63 million; the Defence Force spending around $571 million; Gumboot Friday $24 million. We heard about those savings that this Government's already making in the school lunch programme—over $100 million. But what I would like to highlight so far was the Corrections announcement of $1.9 billion.So there is this document—it's the first one for this Government; the first one for our new Minister of Finance. She has set out a strategy a programme going forward. I think it is a good way of looking forward. I'm personally looking forward to the 2024 Budget package. We have a good foundation and that's what this is about—setting the foundation for the Budget next Thursday. It has the information that we require. Most importantly it's setting us up to take back our country and that's what New Zealand First has set out to do. Thank you very much."