Ministerial Grillapalooza: Photos from Parliament’s Estimates Hearings
Parliament has hit the time of year it turns into a combination of Glastonbury and the Inquisition - the multi-pronged miniterial grilling called Estimates Hearings.
You might think that all that MPs do all week at Parliament is blame each other for the world's ills, order a surfeit of Teslas and sadly occasionally see their careers vanish unexpectedly. But there's a lot more to an MP's job than calculating rebates. At the moment, MPs are knee-deep in an annual oversight event called the Estimates Hearings.
During Estimates Hearings it feels like you can't walk into any room in Parliament House without stumbling into a committee of MPs grilling a minister. The committees hold their hearings back-to-back and simultaneously, like a combination of Glastonbury and The Inquisition.
The endless quizzing does have a purpose. The Estimates Hearings are the next phase of Parliament consideration of the Budget Grant Robertson announced back on 18 May.
Each year when the House receives the Government's budget plan the Finance and Expenditure Committee divvies it up among Parliament's 12 subject select committees. Each committee sends off hundreds of questions to the various ministers responsible for their purview (be it education, or health etc). And now, with the answers in hand, they dig further, but this time in person.
Above is the audio of The House story on the Estimates Hearings. Below are some pictures from last week's hearings.
A Photo Essay: Viewing the Hearings
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So much better than Question Time. As an opposition spokesperson getting to question a government minister for an extended period is both a highlight of the role and also crucial to the functioning of New Zealand's Parliamentary democracy. Here Chris Bishop (National Party spokesperson on Housing) has a very detail-orienting Q&A with Megan Woods (Minister for construction, housing etc). The session was fascinating and showed both minister and MP were well-versed and focused.
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With a minister in their sights though, opposition MPs can easily forget the point of the hearings. Here Governance Committee Chair Naisi Chen tries to steer National MP Melissa Lee back to asking about the actual estimates.
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...and Duncan Webb answers Lee, whose off-topic question was over an upcoming media bill the Minister of Broadcasting has been talking about. In fact that's a bill he had been talking about in another hearing just across the corridor.
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Here he is, as seen from the Select Committee corridor, Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson.
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