Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): The member knows that across the world we are seeing higher rates of inflation, and New Zealand is not immune from that. We can see this in the 4.6 percent average rate of inflation across OECD countries for the year to October 2021. Though inflation has risen above the rate of hourly earnings increases as a result of the recent quarterly data, over a longer period of time real wage growth has been strong. Since 2018, wages have risen by 3.5 percent on average annually, while inflation has risen by 2 percent annually over the same period, and, as recently as the second quarter of this year, wages had been rising ahead of inflation. In answer to the second part of the question, this is not necessarily the case. For example, approximately 116,000 more people are employed than 12 months ago, and 37,000 fewer people are working less hours than they would like to. The Government has also announced an historic investment in our welfare system, which builds on earlier measures, such as the Families Package and the indexation of benefit levels to wages. I do acknowledge that the rising cost of items such as petrol and food places a strain on household budgets. However, the Government's approach of supporting employment through COVID-19 and improving the adequacy of income support has put many households in a better position to manage these increases.