Coffey TamatiTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): We'll only have to put up with a few more contributions in this House from that member the Rt Hon David Carter and rightfully so because he's putting—so what we've seen a lot of in this House is we've seen a lot of scaremongering and actually we need to call it out because what it's doing and the effect that it's having on the people out there in New Zealand is not good. It's making them panic buy it's making them panic—full stop—and we need to turn that around and we need to inform people with fact. And fact is really good. And here's a fact for you: actually the Budget Policy Statement said that the economic outlook is good. So I agree with my fellow Finance and Expenditure Committee member over there. It is good. They don't want to believe it on that side of the House though because they just couldn't fathom the thought that a Labour and New Zealand First and Greens Government just could have a handle on the economy. They just can't believe it. But let's chuck some facts in there because actually that was what was in the conversations that we had with the Reserve Bank and on our committee. Unemployment is down to 4.2. Māori unemployment is the lowest that it's been in a decade. Annual wage growth is incredibly high. The minimum wage is going up. And at a time when obviously we are facing this crisis you can do two things. You can either continue to invest in the people who are on the lowest wages in the country or you can pull back on that. And the Opposition ideologically would say that it's time to pull back on it but over on this side of the House we think that when New Zealanders have got more money in their pocket they head back out into the economy into their local economy and they spend that money around. So now is not a time to be frugal as they would have you believe. They would like to paint a picture of us being the all-spending Government. But actually what we're doing is we're investing in this country like it's never been invested in before. The Government's priorities for the Wellbeing Budget 2020 are about Just Transition—supporting New Zealanders in the transition to a climate-resilient sustainable and low-emissions economy". That's a great thing. There are people out there in New Zealand who would hear that and go "What a noble priority that is. Push that up." So that's one."Future of work—enabling all New Zealanders to benefit from new technologies and lift productivity through innovation". Again a great priority that's really hard to argue with. And here's another one and I'll probably call these ones out together: "Māori and Pacific"—to have that as a priority in terms of "lifting Māori and Pacific incomes skills and opportunities" is just something that I find incredibly hard to negate and that's what the Opposition will try to do. They'll try to tell you that actually it's not worth it. But actually we're here saying that that is one of our priorities and that's what we're investing in. There is "Child wellbeing—reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing" in our communities—and of course physical and mental wellbeing.When we came into Government we knew that we had a mental health crisis because our people were telling us. They were telling us that they wanted change and they wanted our Government to deal with that. So again we have had unprecedented investment into mental health and that's something that I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this Government for. And it's something that actually I tip my hat to the leadership of our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has done a brilliant job of leading us despite the shocks that we've had as a country just in the short couple of years that we've been in Government.As we sat on that committee first of all I want to thank all of the submitters that came before our committee and put forward their different points of view. Of course there was as you would imagine a spectrum of views but I have got to say a common thread there that was coming through again and again in these submissions was that they felt that the Government was on the right track. They felt that we were the ones that were tackling the long-term problems and they felt that we were the ones that had our priorities in order. Those Budget 2020 priorities are listed there. They engaged with them on behalf of their organisations that they represented.One thing that has been talked about is the impact of COVID-19. The member opposite was right: this wasn't a thing—we didn't even know about it—when the Budget Policy Statement came out but actually we took the opportunity in the committee to talk about it and the reason that we're going to be able to tackle it head on is because the economy is doing really well. We have gone and prepared ourselves the best we can for this and yes it is an evolving situation and yes we haven't got all the answers but yes we're going to make sure that New Zealanders are looked after in this process during this outbreak to make sure that they're informed with facts and make sure that they're looked after now and into the future."