Annual Review Debate — In Committee

Members, the House is in committee for further consideration of the Appropriation (2020/21 Confirmation and Validation) Bill. This is the debate on the financial position of the Government and the annual reviews of departments, Officers of Parliament, Crown entities, public organisations, and State enterprises as reported on by select committees.

There are four hours and 31 minutes remaining in this debate. New Zealand Labour has two hours and 34 minutes remaining; New Zealand National has one hour and 23 minutes remaining. The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has 16 minutes remaining. ACT New Zealand has 27 minutes remaining, and Te Paati Māori has 10 minutes remaining.

Members will recall that Standing Orders 356(2) and 356(3) have been set aside, so there are no sector-specific debates. All annual reviews are available for debate but only specific Ministers will be available each day to respond. The Government has indicated that the Minister of Tourism, the Minister of Housing, the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Immigration, and the Minister of Health will be available today.

Each debate will be led off by the chairperson or another member of the committee that considered annual reviews most closely related to the Ministers’ portfolios. A motion to report progress on a bill must be moved on a call not a point of order—Speaker’s ruling 80/1. At the conclusion of the debate questions will be put, noting the committee reports on annual reviews and the provisions of the Appropriation (2020/21 Confirmation and Validation) Bill. There is no amendment for debate on these questions.

I’ll remind members that they’re able to participate remotely. If you’re on the Zoom and want to take a call, please type “call” into the chat. You should also use the chat if you wish to raise a point of order.

Finally, it would be helpful for members to ask multiple questions, if they have them, of the available Minister during their call. We start with the Minister of Tourism, who is available for 30 minutes to respond to members’ questions.

When the Committee was last considering the bill, the question was that the report of the Finance and Expenditure Committee on the annual final statements of the Government for the 2021 financial year be noted.

Tourism