Estimates Debate — In Committee

Members, the House is in committee for further consideration of the Appropriation (2022/23 Estimates) Bill. The Standing Orders provide for 11 hours of debate on the Estimates. There are eight hours and 12 minutes remaining in the debate.

The Business Committee has determined to organise the debate by portfolio, so there’ll be no sector-specific debates. All votes are available for debate, but only specific Ministers will be available each day to speak to the indicated portfolios only. The Government has indicated that the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Local Government, the Minister of Police, and the Minister of Revenue will be available today. Each debate will be led by a call from the chairperson, or a member, of the committee that considered the Estimates most closely related to the Minister’s portfolios.

This debate expires after 11 hours, at which point questions will be put that the votes stand part of the schedules and on the provisions of the Appropriation (2022/23 Estimates) Bill. The time for the debate has been allocated to parties on a proportional basis and may be taken as parties see fit during the debate. New Zealand Labour has four hours and 18 minutes remaining, New Zealand National has two hours and 30 minutes remaining, the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has 39 minutes remaining, ACT New Zealand has 41 minutes remaining, and Te Paati Māori has 11 minutes remaining.

The Estimates debate should be relevant to the Government’s current spending plans as contained in the Estimates of Appropriations. A compendium of the reports of select committees on the votes is available on the Table. The question being debated is that the votes contained in the Estimates of Appropriations for 2022-23 stand part of the schedules.

Members, we start with the Minister of Justice. The Minister is available from—well, it won’t be from 3 to 4; it’ll be from 3.15 to 4.15.

Justice