Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (Deputy Leader—NZ First): That was one of the most contrite contributions that this House has seen in a long long time. The previous contributor Judith Collins stood up and spoke to this House about lacking consistency and she spoke about business as usual. And then she talked about applauding the measures of other countries in their efforts to shut down borders whilst at the same time lamenting the fact that we're having to slow down the number of international students coming into New Zealand at the moment. The consistency of the argument is lacking.The member started giving us doomsday scenarios and talking about the end of the world almost and then she said But let's not panic." It's just frustrating to listen to the members opposite politicise what is an incredibly important situation that this Government and the people of New Zealand—the people themselves and the businesses of New Zealand—need to work through together. I hope that as I stand in this House I can give some reassurance to those businesses especially but the people of New Zealand who have been told and updated and communicated to about what the situation is with COVID-19.But firstly I would like to address actually the Budget Policy Statement which the Finance and Expenditure Committee addressed. It is an opportunity despite my reaction to the contributions opposite to acknowledge the committee and the work that we do—I being the deputy chair—together with regard to the finance and expenditure of this fine country of ours. So we heard and we wrote the report obviously which we're debating now on firstly the Budget and the focus. And the member opposite spoke about not needing a Wellbeing Budget and then finished again in a confusing way saying "We need to focus on the wellbeing of people." That's what this Budget does. That is what the policy statement has outlined again for this House and for the people of New Zealand to read understand and debate. This is a Budget that like the one before it has said that GDP cannot be the sole measure of success. I think even the members opposite surely will acknowledge that the irony of GDP itself is that it is both too broad and too narrow a measure for us to use to measure the success of an economy. As I have said many times in this House Kuznets the economist who designed and created GDP said himself at the creation of this tool don't use it as a tool to measure the success of a nation's economy. It is a useful number and it is a useful insight but it is not a measure. So we have said that we must work at understanding what else is it that we measure because I'm not sure if the public at home will understand or realise that for example the rebuild of Christchurch which was a necessary and important part of this country's history was actually good for GDP. It was a measure and a positive on the outcome but that took mass destruction. So how do we underlie and analyse what is it that is good? What is wellbeing for New Zealanders? Also within this work that we have undertaken in the Wellbeing Budget 2020 we are looking at "Just Transition—Supporting New Zealand in the transition to a climate-resilient sustainable and low-emission economy". New Zealand First has always said—and we've worked with the farmers closely and come up with a good solution despite the members opposite—that a good proposition for New Zealand exporters is to stand up in our world market and put the provenance to our buyers around the world and to have that story to tell about happy employees working and earning a good living in their job and about an economy that understands their world commitment to carbon emissions so that our buyers around the world can take satisfaction and take pride and actually pay a premium for New Zealand products because they understand actually the contribution that New Zealand is making in terms of fighting against carbon emissions. The second part is the "Future of Work—Enabling all New Zealanders to benefit from new technologies and lift productivity through innovation". Again New Zealand First in particular is proud of the efforts we made around the research and development legislation that we brought into the House in an incredibly important attempt effort and ongoing work where we have seen an increase in the investment and the incentivisation of investment into research and innovation by businesses in New Zealand. That fundamentally means more money in the economy but long term it means greater productivity. The third tranche to this was "Māori and Pacific" and as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Provincial Growth Fund or regional economic development it has been a particular pleasure to work with Minister Jackson in our combined efforts to target work programmes in our regions where our Māori youth and Pacific youth but also our Pākehā youth can be supported—David Seymour: Tell us about economics. FLETCHER TABUTEAU: —into work where otherwise they were ignored. I would go on about the nine long years of neglect but the others on the other side of the House just couldn't bear to hear more about the truth there. The fourth part was about "Child wellbeing—Reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing" and so the investment there from this Government has been unparalleled in modern times and it is already making a difference. I'm already running out of time. The last part of that was "Physical and Mental Wellbeing" and actually what I wanted to touch on there in another part of my speech but I'm running out of time was the investment that this Government has made into health. I think the Minister of Finance touched on it in his contribution when he spoke about a health sector that this Government has invested in to the tune of billions of dollars which means our front-line staff and the facilities that they need are actually finally coming into a place where they're up to the task of making sure that if COVID-19 becomes the health problem that we are seeing around the rest of the world we are prepared. Our front-line staff and the facilities that they use are ready to go and that is fundamental to making sure that New Zealanders and their wellbeing are looked after. What I wanted to say in conclusion is to talk about what New Zealanders can expect from a Government in terms of an emergency situation like COVID-19 at the moment and what I want to say and to talk about is the position that this country has come into as reported in the policy statement. We are at 4 percent unemployment and our wage growth is at 3.5 percent while inflation costs are less than 2 percent which fundamentally means more people are employed in the New Zealand economy and they have more disposable income to spend in the economy and to look after themselves and their family. That becomes a virtuous cycle as we move forward in making sure that the scare tactics from the Opposition don't work—don't panic people—and we move forward and give the confidence to New Zealanders that they can make sure that if they are looking after their health we are looking after the economy and business and doing all we can to make sure that we move forward productively and healthily. Thank you Madam Speaker."