Robertson GrantHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Madam Chair thank you very much. And before I start can I acknowledge the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and all members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee across the House for their good works in finding us to this point in the process and their interesting report that they've done.We'll come to the question that the member has asked in a moment. Just by way of introduction when we look at this Budget in total and the fiscal aspects of it that are covered particularly in the report of this committee essentially what we were attempting to do with this Budget was cover off three main things. The first of those was around the question of fiscal stabilisation that obviously we'd had a significant period during COVID-19 where the Government spent large sums of money to support New Zealand businesses and households to deal with the impact of COVID-19. And what this Budget signals over the course of the forecast period is a return in terms of spending as a percentage of GDP to around the long-run average of 3 percent. We have reached up to 35 percent in response to COVID. This is a similar percentage to where the previous Government got to when they were dealing with the global financial crisis where they reached around 34 percent of GDP. It is the nature of the way Government does its work that the balance sheet gets used in times of crisis like this. But obviously attempting to move towards a more stable fiscal position is important. We did that.Alongside that we altered the fiscal rules for the Government and these are articulated within the Budget documentation in particular looking to have both a measure of net debt that is more comparable with the rest of the world—and we've done that—but also looking to a slightly different approach with a debt ceiling. That is put in place at 30 percent of GDP under the new measure of net debt 50 percent under the old measure which is a recognition that the balance sheet can handle going up to that ceiling. It is a ceiling not a target but it does provide a little bit more scope in the future for debt to be used in a flexible way as we have done through the COVID period. So fiscal stabilisation has been a really important part of this Budget.The second area is around the cost of living and obviously people will be aware of the initiatives taken in the Budget on the cost of living including the cost of living payment but also associated with and around the Budget the work that we did to defray transport costs in particular the cost of fuel and the half-price public transport but also longer-term initiatives. And there was Budget night legislation associated with the removal of covenants that supermarkets put in place and the other initiatives flowing from the Commerce Commission report.And then thirdly—and this does relate to the question that the member has asked me—is a suite of initiatives that are essentially around how we go forward with our economic plan of a high-wage low-emission economy that provides economic security to all. The Budget has two novel approaches which I think are just worth reflecting on in this first call that I'll take. The first of those was the arrival of the Climate Emergency Response Fund—as flagged at Budget 2021 that we would be doing this in Budget 2022. This is the hypothecation the recycling of the money from the emissions trading scheme into emissions reductions initiatives. It was a significant programme of work; we front-loaded those initiatives to be able to make sure we got on with getting the emissions reductions that we need that are required for us to meet the goals that have been set through the zero carbon Act and through the Independent Climate Commission's carbon budgets. And so doing that was novel and different. It does involve a number of projects that stretch out over a number of years in the transport area and agriculture and industrial emissions all of which are very important.The second end and different approach we took this year was the approach of clusters one in the justice area and one in the natural resources area both designed to be able to further the public finance modernisation programme that this Government has had under way. That's been designed to get the wellbeing approach developed by taking an intergenerational multi-year approach to funding. So that means that justice Ministers eight of them had to come together for a single set of proposals based around a single set of goals and outcomes for that sector as we did in the natural resources area.This means multi-year funding. So yes it does mean drawing on funding from future Budgets but it is also a requirement that those agencies don't come back within the three years and it does give them the certainty to be able to plan well. So that was an innovative and novel approach we tested it out and we will be reviewing those pilots over the coming days.So within the Estimates that we've been dealing with here I think we as a country can look proudly on the record of New Zealand having got through COVID—there are still challenges to come but the Budget outlines a good plan to deal with those.