Robertson GrantPUBLIC FINANCE (WELLBEING) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the Public Finance (Wellbeing) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. What a great day for New Zealand that today we include in our public finance framework a world-leading approach to understanding supporting and being held accountable for the overall wellbeing of New Zealanders. While on the other side of the House we have a party stuck in the last century unable to see what really matters to New Zealanders on this side of the House we are passing progressive legislation that will mean that from now on Ministers of Finance will be obliged to report on the overall wellbeing of New Zealanders.Now we've done that as a Government in Budget 2019 and we did that because we believed it was the right thing to do. The framework that we have based that on is a robust analytical framework. Treasury's Living Standards Framework is drawn from the OECD's quality of life index. It covers four capitals. When we go out and we talk to New Zealanders about this it's better not to use the language of economists—with all due respect to economists. But that robust framework is there. So that is financial capital that is natural capital that is human capital and that is social capital. If you want to translate that into people's everyday lives that is about the money the environment the people and the community. It's about the health of all of those. It's about how they're tracking in terms of your own health status your educational status how safe you feel. It's about our environment how clean our water is how clean our air is. It's about making sure our communities are connected to one another. It's about trust in Government. It's about making sure that we are a prosperous country that manages its finances prudently. It is all of the things that make up our success. Of course our Budget should report on that. The fact that it hasn't is a gap and the fact that it hasn't and we are changing that today is something to celebrate.But in addition to that what this bill does is uphold the principles of the Public Finance Act as passed through this House in 1989. That is a level of rigour and independence that you don't see in many other countries. So the Public Finance Act and this has been a cross-party view since the late 1980s incorporated the Fiscal Responsibility Act. What that means is that we report more often as a country about the state of our finances about the long-term plans for our finances and our fiscal position than almost any other country in the world. Here today in Part 2 of the bill that we're passing we're putting the responsibility on Treasury once every four years to take a broad sweep of wellbeing. So every year the Government of the day does it against its objectives—we've done that all Governments will need to do that based on what they believe the wellbeing objectives should be. But then every four years Treasury takes a step back and it says how are we going as a country? They may well measure differently than the Government of the day. And that's important because that's their job to take that step back and say how is New Zealand doing against a wellbeing outlook? This is an important piece of legislation in my view because it takes New Zealand a step forward. Yes we have to look after the dollars and the cents it is essential. But we also have to value the other things that New Zealanders value.I've told this story often. In the 2017 election campaign when I was out there talking about this concept I was in a room of lawyers in Auckland and we were discussing it and they had a look on their face similar to Andrew Bayly's right now. So I stopped what I was talking about and I said What matters for you? What matters for you and your children?" And one of the lawyers said "Well it's their health. I want to know that they're going to be healthy." And then another—an interesting comment—of the lawyers said "I want to know that my children have friends." which I thought was an interesting response from a lawyer. And another person said "I want to know that they're going to get a good job so that they can look after me in their retirement." All of these represent different things that people feel matter to them and matter to their families. So this is not something that's well outside of the mainstream. It's actually about reflecting back to New Zealanders how they feel about what is success. And so for me this is a piece of legislation that is actually something New Zealanders want to see us do when it comes to the way we measure success and the way we put our Budgets together.I'd also just say that this concept around wellbeing is now being picked up by a number of people in the corporate sector. Two of our largest banks have embraced this. Westpac now runs a regional wellbeing series where they go around New Zealand using Treasury's Living Standards Framework looking at wellbeing at a regional basis. I've attended some of those; they're fascinating. They bring people together and have conversations that have not been happening. Westpac understand that that matters. Now they are a bank they are fundamentally about the dollars and cents but they know that the dollars and cents don't mean anything if they're not connected to the outcomes that people want in their communities. The Bank of New Zealand has established its own wellbeing index and they survey their customers on a regular basis. And that includes things like housing like their physical safety like the quality of the environment. So it's now understood within the corporate sector that these things matter.So this piece of legislation reflects Where New Zealand is today. It's what New Zealanders want. They don't see success as just being in a financial balance sheet sense. Yes that matters but in addition to that it's about the success that we have as people in our communities protecting our environment. So I am proud of this piece of legislation I am proud of the fact that this Government has put together Wellbeing Budgets and I commend this bill to the House."