Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee): As the chair of the Finance—Barbara Kuriger: Point of order. Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: —and Expenditure Committee I'm delighted to take the first call—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): Sorry to interrupt the member. We've got a point of order. Barbara Kuriger: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. It was my understanding that Dr Jian Yang was the first speaker in this section of the Estimates debate. Dr Jian Yang: And I did call. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): I understand you sought the call. The advice that I have is that this section of the debate should be led by the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee which is why I called Dr Deborah Russell. Barbara Kuriger: We've obviously got different information. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): I apologise to the member but that's the information I have. Back to Dr Deborah Russell. Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: As chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee I'm delighted to lead off this particular debate. I wish to begin by paying tribute to the outgoing chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Mr Michael Wood who led us through the Estimates hearings for the Finance and Expenditure Committee and who did a marvellous job of course. It covers a large portfolio of interests in this particular section of the debate and in the finance sector we in particular look at Vote Audit Vote Finance and Vote Revenue—all critical parts of the Government's work. I wish to focus in particular on Vote Finance and very importantly on the new approach that has been taken in this year's Budget which was very much part of the discussion especially in Vote Finance. It is a directional change in how we do Budgets in New Zealand and as such it's a very important matter. I am referring to the wellbeing approach and within that to the Living Standards Framework which has been developed by Treasury over a number of years. We asked the Minister What difference does this new approach make?" and the answer was that it makes a considerable difference. One of the many things it does is encourage agencies to work together—so instead of operating in silos that agencies develop Budget bids together. I think the most interesting example of this was the joint venture package on family sexual violence which will be discussed in a later vote. But from our point of view—from the point of view of this new approach—it joined together these agencies: health social development education justice police ACC corrections and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet all working together as part of the wellbeing approach. It is a singular new approach. The Minister admitted that it had been a challenge getting agencies to work together and this was something that Treasury said too but they also pointed out that it was work they were doing already—in particular with the Living Standards Framework which focuses around four capitals: financial and physical capital natural capital social capital and human capital. That word "capital" is of course a very Treasury or a very financial word and when we asked the Minister to talk about the difference between social capital and human capital he said that social capital was really the way that we connect together and that human capital was the skills and capabilities of each person. Then he gave a very specific example of how this might actually work in a budgetary approach. How did it work for example with the school donations? Now this is the policy whereby under this Labour Government in return for extra funding for schools parents will no longer be required to pay school donations. So what difference did it make? In terms of a wellbeing analysis the donations policy as the Minister said provides support to schools which allows them to provide a strong educational environment which is deeply relevant to human capital and it supports parents by ensuring that they don't have to find that money each year which supports their financial capital. This wellbeing approach could also be applied to KiwiRail investments to increase wellbeing and we talked about it in the context of wellbeing approaches for State-owned enterprises. It is actually very possible to describe almost anything in terms of wellbeing but that's not the point of the wellbeing approach and the Living Standards Framework. The point is to drive a new approach to doing budgeting in this country and I recommend that each of us in thinking about this Estimates debate thinks of it in terms of that framework. Just turning briefly to Vote Revenue at a stretch you can even apply it to Vote Revenue by talking about how the Business Transformation project which makes life easier for ordinary taxpayers in terms of doing their tax returns or not having to do them and in terms of getting refunds automatically—all part of that Business Transformation—actually assists people's wellbeing. The wellbeing approach that we examined in these Estimates is new it's revolutionary it's exciting and it is part of the transformation that this hard-working Government is leading."