Budget 2019 not over yet

From the debating chamber, to estimates hearings, to question time, to a first reading debate, Budget 2019 is all over Parliament at the moment despite being unveiled last month.

Here’s an overview of the financial scrutiny process so far.

Budget Debate 2019

This is the main event. Well the first part is.

 On May 30 the Finance Minister Grant Robertson delivered his budget statement which is a long speech with a lot of budget announcements.

After that the budget debate starts with the Opposition Leader Simon Bridges going first. They're followed by the Prime Minister and other leaders of parties (with more than six MPs) - that's the first part.

The budget is actually a bill which needs to be passed by Parliament and during the Budget Debate MPs talk the good and bad of the Government's proposed spending plan - for up to 15 hours. 

With the main players done on day one,  the rest of the time is split up over several days and it's up to the other MPs to fill that time. 

Most of them speak on their particular interest ares or portfolios. For example, the National Paty's finance spokesperson Amy Adams spoke about the economy.

"If you don't have an economy, New Zealanders don't have jobs, they can't feed their families, they can't pay the rent, and the Government has no money for health, for education, for roading, for policing, for the things that New Zealanders care about."

And Associate Minister of Education Jenny Salesa spoke about a cultural competency programme called Tapasa.

"When students feel that they or their parents are being put down, they don't feel welcome in schools. So this particular cultural competency tool is a framework for teachers; teachers who actually work with the majority of our students. In this Budget, within that $27.4 million, we've invested money to ensure that it is a tool that more of our teachers."

Education is always a popular issue to discuss and while MPs were debating the merits of the Government's budget in the House, Ministers are being grilled in front of Select Committees. 

Estimates Hearings

These hearings take place in Select Committee which is a smaller group of MPs from a mix of parties that meet to examine bills, petitions, and hear from the public.

In this instance, their job is to quiz a Minister on the spending plan for a particular area.

At the Education and Workforce Committee, National MP Nikki Kaye questioned Minister of Education Chris Hipkins on a bill introduced under urgency. The bill would affect school donations for schools in deciles 1-7 and the policy was part of the Budget announcements.

"You said publicly you're never planning on extending the school donations scheme to deciles 8, 9 and 10 in terms of discretionary payments. Can you just confirm that you didn't put any budget bids, or do any work around deciles 8, 9 and 10 being included?" asked Kaye.

"No, I can't and actually that's not what I said. I think if you'd listened to my answers in question time yesterday I said that it may well be extended to deciles 8, 9 and 10 schools in the future but that's a decision for another day," answered Hipkins. 

Question time

Like select committee, question time is also a tool to hold Ministers to account.

The day before, Kaye asked Hipkins about this topic.

Question time consists of up to 12 oral questions to Ministers. MPs in government parties tend to ask softer questions that show the Government's work in a positive light while Opposition MPs will use theirs to try and show up the Government.

Hon Nikki Kaye: Will he admit that he has broken his promise to provide incentive payments for all State and State integrated schools in exchange for their agreement not to ask for parental donations?

Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I don't think the member listened to my original answer. If she listened when we announced the policy, we were very clear that the policy costings were based on decile 1 to 7 schools taking that policy up. In the future, it may well be that we're in a position to extend it to other schools. That's, of course, a decision for another day.

Chamber debate - first reading

The school donations Bill Kaye and Hipkins are discussing was introduced and passed its first reading under urgency. 

It's official title is the Education (School Donations) Amendment Bill and it was announced as part of the Budget announcements.

Normally a bill can’t go through more than one stage per sitting day mostly, so MPs have some time to read it and prepare. But under urgency a bill can go through stages more quickly, shortening a process which can take months or sometimes years.

It also means the House can sit longer hours other than the usual Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; this bill was debated on a Saturday (which technically was a long Thursday) during which Hipkins outlined its purpose.

"There are around 1,703 schools in New Zealand who will be eligible for an additional $150 per student if they choose not to ask their parents for donations, if they choose to accept this policy," he told the House.

"Boards of trustees who opt in to receive the $150 per student per year will have to agree to certain conditions, the main one being to stop asking for donations from parents. This will be in place from the beginning of the 2020 school year."

Kaye spoke next saying the National Party would support the bill through its first reading but it had some concerns.

"If you look at the history around this issue, Labour previously promised that they would scrap school donations," she said.

"National will support this bill through to its first reading, but we will certainly be pointing out the inequities—the huge inequities—that this Minister of Education is creating with this bill. One of them, as I've mentioned, is around these decile 8, decile 9, and decile 10 schools that are excluded."

After a first reading, a bill goes to select committee for about six months during which the MPs examine the bill, hear from the public and write a report for the House to consider and debate at a bill's second reading.

Hipkins moved for a quicker report back time from the committee (August); a decision that Kaye questioned during the Estimates Hearing.

"We're in a situation where we've got about 700 schools that are affected. You put a truncated report back [time] so that there wasn't the time in my view, we've now got five days left, for parents and 700 schools to potentially give their view to the committee," she said.

"Why did you do that? Why did you truncate and muzzle parents and schools on this really important isssue?"

Hipkins said the bill is simple.

"It simply creates a power for government to recoup funding from schools that don't meet the conditions attached to that funding and that's basically all it does as you would have seen," he said.

"It doesn't get into the merits or otherwise of the $150 for donatiosn scheme but the schools will want to have certainty around what the criteria that apply, because it's going to be voluntary, so they can choose to opt in or out of it. They'll want to know what those criteria are before the end of the year."

Estimates hearings have taken place for Ministers of Immigration, Revenue, Health, Housing, children, and seniors and will continue in the coming weeks.