Arguing the count while counting the clock

The Annual Review Debate allows Parliament to grill government ministers on performance in their areas, unless someone runs out of time first. They did.

For the past two weeks the main event in Parliament's debating chamber has been the Annual Review Debate. This ten-hour-long debate happens every year in the run-up to a new budget.

Formally, it is the Committee of the Whole House stage for the bill that confirms the government's books for the period initiated two budgets ago. The Appropriation (2022/23 Confirmation and Validation) Bill.

In the House, the debate is introduced to the MPs like this: "The annual review debate is the debate on the financial position of the Government and the annual reviews of departments, Officers of Parliament, Crown entities, public organisations, and State enterprises, as reported on by select committees."

The build up to Annual Review Debate is a series of inquiries by the select committees. Each subject specialist committee selects a range of government organisations within their purview to investigate, with written questions and public hearings, including grilling the ministers responsible.

The results of all of those investigations are collected in a huge and fascinating report (see volume 1 here and volume 2 here). It is that report that is being debated in The Annual Review Debate.

The debate is a committee stage, but with many more ministers appearing than usual. The ministers turn up in the House one at a time, and answer questions mostly from opposition MPs, about the performance of their own parts of the government.

Keeping an eye on the clocks

The Annual Review Debate is ten hours long, and each party is allocated a portion of that time according to their size. The debate is not all nicely timed-out speeches though, it is questions and answers. Sometimes lots of questions and few answers and sometimes a few questions and really long answers, depending on which minister is at the Table.

At the front of the debating chamber a member of parliament's staff sits with seven timers; one for each party. Every time an MP or a minister gets up and speaks that time is knocked off their party's total.

It is a count-down to zero for each party, and each party is responsible for managing its own time-resource to make sure that they have enough for:

The apolitical introductory speeches to be made on behalf of a select committee for each subject section of the debate (a mix of parties, but most committee chairs are from governing parties).

All the questions they want to ask (mostly from opposition parties).

All the answers to those questions (entirely from governing parties)…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details