Federated Farmers strongly supports the current framework for fiscal policy as set out in the Public Finance Act. New Zealand is a world leader in fiscal transparency. The one area where we don’t rank in the top echelon of countries is on budget oversight. An independent fiscal institution (IFI) would go some way to address this. Federated Farmers publicly welcomed the establishment of an IFI when it was announced in Budget 2018. We believe it should be advance as a high priority so it can be in place and operating well in advance of the next General Election (i.e., when political parties are formulating their election policies and manifestos).