Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-General

I move, That a respectful Address be presented to Her Excellency the Governor-General commending to Her Excellency the alterations to the appropriations for the 2024-25 financial year in respect of Vote Audit and Vote Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, and the estimates of expenses to be incurred for each appropriation in 2025-26 in Vote Audit, Vote Ombudsmen, and Vote Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

The question is that motion be agreed to.

Once again, on behalf of the Labour Party, I commend the appropriation. Again, I’ll commend my fellow members of the Officers of Parliament Committee where each—the Auditor-General, the Ombudsman, and the Commissioner for the Environment—came and gave us a good understanding of their roles, and certainly a justification for the spending and any adjustments required. So, with that, I’m very pleased to commend this motion.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa to also support the alterations to the 2023-24 appropriations for Vote Audit, Vote Ombudsmen and Vote Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and the 2024-25 draft budgets for the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

Now, for context as well to the House, this particular collective and this particular group, we’re doing it in this way and going through the Officers of Parliament Committee to maintain the independence of such Offices of Parliament, and the Public Finance Act 1989 provides the funding for such. In terms of the submission also made by the three offices, we examined the submissions in conjunction with the Treasury, and I just want to take a little bit of time to go through the context for each one, starting with the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General.

I think the main thing to recognise in terms of the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General is that, to the best of their abilities, they try to operate in a fiscally neutral environment, but due to certain circumstances around the COVID-19 pandemic there has been the requirement of capital injection into this. I think, in this case, what we are looking at here is that we have received reassurance from the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General that they are on track to ensure that they go back into that fiscally neutral environment, with no additional capital injection required other than a transfer of funding from the 2023-24 appropriation into the 2024-25 Budget. That is one of the really interesting observations that I think, as a collective, as a committee, we have observed.

I think, in terms of the second office, when we’re looking at the Office of the Ombudsman, a couple of observations are, number one, what we have seen as a result of extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle. We have seen that there has been a triggering of a surge of complaints as a result, and in order for the office to both ensure that complaints are dealt promptly but also at the same time ensure that there’s a high level of retention of staff, which is one of the concerns that we did address with the Office of the Ombudsman, there is an additional budget being set aside in terms of the remuneration for staff when it comes to the Office of the Ombudsman.

It’s also noted that, although in terms of the particular type of performance payment that has been suggested, it is not necessarily something that was initially supported by the Treasury. But again, as a committee, we think that it is important for us, and particularly for the office, to be able to retain some of the staff. I think there’s another element of the funding that deserves mentioning in terms of the Office of the Ombudsman, which is the fact that the office is also seeking additional funding—which this committee has supported—around the office system upgrades to ensure that the system that the Office of the Ombudsman is using is robust and secure. This is particularly when it comes to things around cybersecurity and business continuity.

Finally, when it comes to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, we are looking at, again, the Commissioner having not sought any additional funding for the time being. It is part of the baseline funding. It’s also important to note that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s baseline budget has not increased in the last six years, and it is something that they have signalled they might be seeking, an increase in funding in the next year round, in order for them to maintain the level of staff and also in terms of the rising costs and around the inflation. If that wasn’t being met, there might be some reductions in terms of the research budget and moving around some of the other budget. But, in terms of this year, they have not sought for any additional budget other than transferring funding of $50,000 from the 2023-24 appropriation into the 2024-25 Budget.

With that, we support the recommendations that have been made, and we commend this to the House.

Motion agreed to, and Address agreed to.

I declare the House in committee for further consideration of the Appropriation (2023/24 Confirmation and Validation) Bill.