Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I've seen a range of reports on the impact of economic policy measures on wealth inequality, some of these from the time and some with the benefit of hindsight. Throughout the crisis we took the approach to prioritise those who were the most vulnerable and tend to disproportionately bear the cost of an economic shock. That's why we lifted main income benefits three times, we lifted the minimum wage, and we doubled the winter energy payment. The wage subsidy scheme was designed not just to provide cash flow and confidence to businesses but to keep New Zealanders in their jobs. I appreciate that the member may disagree with some of the decisions that were taken and some of the outcomes that have occurred since then. A decision that we would do less in response to a one-in-100-year shock would have meant accepting a greater risk that lower-income people would have suffered through the pandemic. I would never claim that our economic response was perfect—or our health response, for that matter—but I am proud of the way in which we have supported households and businesses through a period of intense uncertainty. I'm proud of the way that New Zealanders have continued to manage the ongoing supply side impacts of the pandemic, and I'm proud that, for example, the Māori unemployment rate, which reached almost 15 percent after the global financial crisis, is now at 5.5 percent.