SpeechDEBATE ON BUDGET POLICY STATEMENTRACHEL BROOKING (Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee): I move That the House take note of the report of the Finance and Expenditure Committee on the Budget Policy Statement 2023 and Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2022.I just want to start by reflecting on of course that today is 15 March and we've just heard some comments from the MP for Wigram about that day four years ago and my thoughts are with the shuhada and the people of Christchurch generally.Moving now to the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) and the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) I will start by talking mostly about this Budget Policy Statement that was released on 14 December 2022. It's important to acknowledge—and I'm sure many of the speeches following me will address this in some detail—that of course 14 December 2022 was well before a number of significant weather events that hit the North Island in both January and February of this year.Going back to this year the Finance and Expenditure Committee held hearings on 13 February so that was the day before the emergency was declared on 14 February. We received 27 written submissions on the Budget Policy Statement and heard 14 oral submissions on 13 February. We then had the Minister of Finance and Dr Caralee McLiesh the Secretary to the Treasury attend the Finance and Expenditure Committee on 22 February and we heard from both parties for 45 minutes each. At that hearing the Budget day was announced and it will be on 18 May—I seem to be talking a lot about dates here. Then the Finance and Expenditure Committee reported back this month on both the BPS and the HYEFU.So I want to talk a little bit about what a Budget Policy Statement is and what it says obviously. So the Budget Policy Statement commences the Budget cycle it sets the scene and it's a requirement under the Public Finance Act 1989 section 26M. That section sets out things that it must include and that includes—so it says—the broad strategic priorities by which the Government will be guided in preparing the Budget for that financial year including—(a) the overarching policy goals that will guide the Government's Budget decisions; and (aa) the wellbeing objectives … and (b) the policy areas that the Government will focus … and (c) how the Budget for that year accords with the short-term intentions referred to in the most recent fiscal strategy report".So those are things that must be included and also those wellbeing objectives "must relate to social economic environmental and cultural wellbeing and to any other matters that the Government considers support long-term wellbeing in New Zealand." And the other thing that must be included is an explanation of "how the wellbeing objectives are intended to support long-term wellbeing in New Zealand." And that is exactly what the Budget Policy Statement does.So if we go right to the start if we're talking about the wellbeing at page 2 of the Budget Policy Statement there's discussion of the Living Standards Framework and now the complementary He Ara Waiora looking at Te Ao Māori values as well. So the Budget Policy Statement talks about those four capitals being human natural social financial and physical. And then what happens in the document is the BPS comments on these capitals. So if we go to page 7 under the natural capital the natural environment there's a section on climate change and there is some discussion about how the Government is very concerned about the impacts of recent extreme weather events—noting of course that this was written last year and we thought last year was bad—and it goes on to say that "Scientists are clear that the severity and frequency of these events are being exacerbated by climate change. New Zealand's first ever National Adaptation Plan … outlines the Government's strategy to manage the risks to lives livelihoods homes businesses and infrastructure caused by the changing climate." It goes on to talk about the Climate Emergency Response Fund—the CERF—and notes that that has been extended for Budget 2023 to include climate change adaptation. And that was a point that the committee focused on in the hearing with the Minister.If we go then to the relevant work that has been done on that capital that's outlined at page 8 and talks about things like "reforming the resource management system to make it faster cheaper and better"—Hon Grant Robertson: A good piece of work.RACHEL BROOKING: —isn't it?—the Plastics Innovation Fund so that's a $50 million fund; Jobs for Nature a $1.2 billion programme that has funded more than 421 projects and created more than 9000 environment-orientated jobs; and it's talking also about rural land use and advisory services and the Clean Car Discount.If we went on we could look at infrastructure which is part of the financial and physical capital. And so there are comments here about how "the Infrastructure Commission assesses that New Zealand has a public infrastructure deficit of approximately $104 billion." and how "The Government is committed to addressing this shortfall and will invest a further $62.7 billion in infrastructure (in health transport housing and education in particular) over the next five years." And then there's a discussion about the need for those Resource Management Act reforms three waters and increasing the workforce.The wellbeing objectives outlined on page 15—and that is the just transition physical and mental wellbeing future of work Māori and Pacific peoples and child wellbeing. And there's a note there that there has been a slight revision to those objectives for Budget 2023 to reflect the "increased emphasis on improving our young peoples' foundational literacy and numeracy skills educational experience and"—very importantly in my opinion—"mental health outcomes."Then how the BPS works is that these are expanded on in the following pages. So on the child wellbeing which is "reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing including through access to affordable safe and stable housing" there is a comment about how the "Good material standards of living (including access to warm and dry housing) provide children with a good start in life and this been shown to contribute to lasting wellbeing outcomes in areas like health housing and education."The focus areas of Budget 2023 are provided around page 18 so we have the overarching goals which are "1. continuing to keep New Zealand safe from COVID-19; 2. accelerating the recovery and rebuild from the impacts of COVID-19; and 3. laying the foundations for the future including addressing key issues such as our climate change response housing affordability and child poverty." That is also addressed at page 4 of the committee's report. The BPS also has policy areas of focus and this covers—again this is outlined on page 4 of the committee's report—supporting families with cost of living; careful fiscal policy; returning to surplus in the 2024/25 year; getting the basics right particularly with the Public Service; delivering on the economic plan and that is investing in infrastructure that drives growth productivity and reduces emissions.In our hearing there was some focus on trying to do projects that achieve multiple goals. So the Minister mentioned one something that does two things is a cycleway in Wellington that is also a stock bank. So it's infrastructure that's doing those two things—how can we get those projects our investments to do at least a couple of good things.I just want to touch very briefly on the submissions. We had very engaged people we were talking about student associations before we had the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association and others speaking about how they wanted free public transport. We also had support for the wellbeing approach by the Salvation Army and some specific requests from the likes of the disabled persons assembling. Going back to that infrastructure they were requesting the infrastructure mandate the highest possible accessibility standards. My time is up. Thank you very much.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Poto Williams): The question is that the motion be agreed to."