Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I have received advice from the Treasury and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that this year wholesale electricity prices have been higher than normal and that this could have economic impacts, particularly for the small number of energy consumers exposed to spot prices. The advice also included that, over the longer term, if wholesale prices return to their long-term averages, it is unlikely that there will be long-term impacts on energy consumers. With regard to the second part of the member's question, on the question of outages, given the event referred to in the House today occurred only last night, I have not received specific advice on the economic consequences of that. Regarding economic impacts, it is worth noting that unemployment has fallen to its pre-COVID level of 4 percent, while employment is growing. Data also shows that economic activity in New Zealand has returned to where it was pre-COVID levels. 