Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Chair and hello to the Minister of Finance. I'd just like to ask about the part of the report that refers to the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation divesting from Israeli banks. It reports on a decision that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund would not invest in Israeli banks on the basis that they were somehow subsidising settlements in the Middle East. Now I represent the Epsom electorate. We have a lot of Jewish people—probably the largest Jewish community of any electorate in New Zealand—and it's puzzling for them to see that this is a country where Air New Zealand fixes turbines for the Saudis; where as it turns out we have multiple exports of at best dual-use technologies frequently signed off by the New Zealand Government to all sorts of nasty people; and where as we know we have 28 percent of New Zealand's exports going to a country governed by the Communist Party of China a Government that is part of much focus in current diplomacy and perhaps a debate from this House. Now people might ask why it is that the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation have seen so fit in a world filled with conflict to pick on Israeli banks because they're entangled in one of the most long-running and complex conflicts in the world—which by the way they didn't choose. I think that people in the Epsom electorate and actually people in the Jewish community up and down New Zealand and indeed many New Zealanders would like to know what the Minister of the Crown thinks about the guardians choosing to make that divestment when there are so many others that arguably the New Zealand Government should be making. More generally I would ask the Minister what is the plan for COVID recovery in terms of scrutiny of Government finances? The report is very clear that during the COVID period there was such will to get cash out the door that there just wasn't time to scrutinise the quality of spending of taxpayer money. And we don't entirely begrudge the Government of that. Some aspects of the response were supported by all parties in this House and actually were done very well or at least as well as could be done under the circumstances such as the wage subsidy scheme. That's all very well—some of it at least—but the real question is what is the Government's commitment to returning to cost-benefit analysis and getting sound value for money now that we're back to business as usual? Will the Government and will the Minister of Finance draw a line under that COVID period and say he is back to committing to sound cost-benefit analysis and quality of the expenditure of taxpayer money? That is something I think New Zealanders would want to hear from him and perhaps beyond him saying of course he would like to do it he could explain what steps he's taken since we've got out of lockdowns—we hope—in order to restore proper cost-benefit analysis to spending taxpayer money as was abandoned during the depths of the COVID period.Finally as the report notes a large amount of debt has been taken on—a stupendous amount. People will use different figures. I notice the Minister yesterday used IMF figures which show a very kind view of New Zealand's debt to GDP ratio. I think the correct figures to use are the forecast of where we will be at the end of this forecast period and that is much higher—close to 50 percent of GDP. Now the Minister in his speech has said Doesn't matter. Interest rates are low; debt servicing costs have actually got lower in spite of"—he's wrinkling his nose. This is from his speech he gave yesterday. The Minister said "Don't worry about debt; interest rates are low. We're actually paying less to service debt than we were previously." Now if the Minister wants to get up and say he is worried about debt perhaps he'd like to tell the committee and the public what sort of commitments he has as Minister of Finance to reduce debt. What is his plan for debt reduction? It can't be enough just to say "Oh well interest rates are low" because as many commentators are saying you know United States Treasury bond rates have flicked up; inflation appears to be rearing its head again. So long as we have conventional monetary policy responses that means that interest rates are going to rise the cost of debt servicing is going to rise and the borrowing that happened through the COVID period will have serious impacts on future generations. That is something I am sure people would like to hear from the Minister about."