Financial Review Debate — In Committee

The House is in Committee on the Appropriation (2003/04 Financial Review) Bill. The Standing Orders provide for the financial review debate to be the Committee stage of an Appropriation (Financial Review) Bill. The debate is organised in three distinct parts. It commences with a debate on the Crown’s financial statements as reported on by the Finance and Expenditure Committee. Once that debate is disposed of, the Committee debates the individual financial reviews of departments and Offices of Parliament as reported on by select committees. There is a list of financial reviews available for debate, on the Table. The debate on the Crown’s financial position may be fairly wide ranging, but the debates on the individual financial reviews of departments and Offices of Parliament should be relevant to their performance in the 2003-04 financial year and their current operations.

A member may have no more than two calls on each financial review. Four hours is allowed for these two segments of the financial review debate. At the conclusion of the 4 hours, a single question is to be put on the provisions of the bill. There is to be no amendment or debate on that question. The Chairperson will report the bill to the House, and it will be set down for third reading forthwith. There is no debate on the third reading. With regard to the schedule of proposed questions, I invite members to turn to page 445 of the compendium volume of select committee reports on the 2003-04 financial reviews of departments and Offices of Parliament. The question now is that the report of the Finance and Expenditure Committee on the annual financial statements of the Crown for the year ended 30 June 2004 be noted.

TreasuryFinancial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the yearended 30 June 2004