Estimates Debate — In Committee

Members—quietly, please—the House is in committee for further consideration of the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill. 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 Local Government, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Transport will be available today. I understand that the relevant select committee chairpersons have indicated they do not wish to take calls to commence the debates.

This debate expires after 11 hours, at which point questions will be put that the Vote stand part of the Schedules and on the provisions of the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill. There are two hours 29 minutes remaining in this debate. New Zealand Labour has 30 minutes remaining; New Zealand National has one hour 20 minutes remaining; ACT New Zealand has 22 minutes remaining; the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has 13 minutes remaining; Te Paati Māori has 11 minutes remaining; Dr Elizabeth Kerekere has six minutes remaining; the Hon Meka Whaitiri has six 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 committee will be suspending at 5 p.m. for valedictory statements and will be sitting again after the dinner break.

The question, once again, is that the Votes contained in the Estimates of appropriation for 2023/24 stand part of the Schedules. We start with the Minister of Local Government. The Minister is available from 3 p.m. till 4 p.m.

Local Government