Yang JianDr JIAN YANG (National): Madam Chair thank you. I would like to speak on the Finance and Government Administration Sector of the appropriation bill. The Government accounts show that in eight months to the end of February the Government surplus is $500 million above forecast. This highlights the work the previous National Government did in the past nine years. After nine years the National-led Government left a very sound economy behind and also we left a very sound fiscal position.This did not come easily because when National came to power in 2008 we experienced the global financial crisis and then later on the Canterbury earthquakes and then later on the Kaikōura earthquakes in 2016. I touch upon the Kaikōura earthquakes because that was in the financial year that we are looking at. A number of Government agencies were affected during the earthquakes but it turned out that these agencies or our public services were very strong and resilient. They came up strongly.Take Statistics New Zealand as an example. There was significant damage to the Statistics New Zealand Wellington headquarters and also a shutdown—a shutdown—of their data centre. However their backup system—their backup system—worked as planned and they quickly secured new and safe office accommodation. So this is just one of many agencies that experienced difficulties but they were able to emerge strong and also to prove to be very resilient.So this as I said did not come very easily. The previous National-led Government focused on the economy. Take tourism for example—tourism came up very very strongly. It became later on perhaps the largest exporter for New Zealand. So this is again an example of how the National-led Government managed our economy.The current coalition Government tries to portray a picture that the previous National-led Government under-invested in the public sectors. They were claiming for example that district health boards (DHBs) were under-invested—lots of deficits. Interestingly the Hon Michael Woodhouse today wanted to table a table basically to demonstrate the deficits from the year 2000 to the year 2017. That was declined by the coalition Government. That was interesting. I would like to use this as an example to show some facts: the National-led Government did very well. While there is some—well not misinformation but some not accurate descriptions of the situation under the National-led Government.From the year 2000 to the year 2008 under Labour the combined DHB deficit was $601220—Hon Michael Woodhouse: Million.Dr JIAN YANG: Right? A million—sorry.Hon Michael Woodhouse: $601 million.Dr JIAN YANG: Yeah sorry. And then under the National-led Government—eight years under the National-led Government—the deficit is even smaller than—CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): Order! Could I just bring the member back to the period we're discussing and also to look at the agencies that were reviewed. Thank you.Dr JIAN YANG: Yes I just use this as an example to demonstrate that we need to bring Labour's description into perspective.Finally I will say that Statistics New Zealand needs to be independent. Late last year the coalition Government wanted to review the measures of unemployment but it's important for us to understand that a Government Statistician needs to be independent. I'm quite pleased to see that in the committee hearing Statistics New Zealand maintained that it will remain independent.