Estimates Debate — In Committee

The House is in Committee for consideration of the Appropriations (2015/16 Estimates) Bill. The Standing Orders provide for 11 hours of debate on the estimates. The Business Committee has determined that the estimates debate be divided into 10 separate debates covering the sectors set out in the Estimates of Appropriations for 2015-16.

Each debate will be led by a call from the chairperson of the select committee nominated by the Government as the major committee reporting on the sector. The Labour Party will have two calls, the Green Party will have one call, New Zealand First will have one call, and the Minister in the chair will have three calls in response. All calls are 5 minutes in length. Members may take unused allocated calls later in the estimates debate. In addition, there are 52 5-minute supplementary calls that have been allocated to parties, and those may be taken as parties see fit during the 10 sector debates. At the end of each debate the question will be put that the votes in each sector stand part of the schedules. The time taken on each question is in the hands of members, depending on parties’ use of their allocation of supplementary calls. However, this debate expires after 11 hours.

The estimates debate should be relevant to the Government’s current spending plans as contained in the Estimates of Appropriations. All of the votes are available for debate. The compendium of the reports of select committees on the votes is available on the Table. The reports on Vote Labour Market and Vote Transport are not contained in the compendium but are available separately on the Table.

Economic Development and Infrastructure Sector