Parliament asks for budget for its watchdogs

In the lead-up to the Budget, Parliament goes over the head of the Government, asking the Governor General to add in some cash for Parliament's three watch-dogs.

The Government's budget is decided by cabinet, after many months of work from the Minister of Finance, Treasury and individual ministries and agencies.

But they don't get to make all the decisions. Before the budget gets presented Parliament gets the chance to add a few items itself, by-passing the Government (kind-of) to fund its own watch-dogs.

Ultimately, it is Parliament that has the power to approve or reject the entire budget, but that decision is over something designed and proposed by government. This bit is different.

These extra Appropriations are voted on by Parliament and presented separately. In fact they are made in the form of an Address to the Governor General, with details of funding for the Officers, to be added to the budget.

(Fun fact, that address is a physical thing, not an email. It is printed on 'Goat Skin', which these days is just a high quality parchment rather than the former skin of a goat.)

On Monday, the Leader of the House (who is the Government's senior representative in the debating chamber), moved that the House recommend two things to the Governor General.

Both to do with three Parliamentary watch-dogs who keep an eye on government: The three Officers of Parliament are the Ombudsman, the Auditor-General, and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. They all report to Parliament as a whole (through Parliament's Speaker and the Officers of Parliament Committee) rather than to a particular minister or cabinet like other government entities.

The first was updates to last year's Estimates for those watch dogs; i.e. their actual spend rather than their estimated spend. The second was their estimated spend for the coming year.

This is all separate from the Government's own budget development process because these entities are designed to apply independent scrutiny to the Government's actions including use of public funds, legal accountability and environmental stewardship.

Government's might feasibly find them to be a thorn in their side and desired to defund them. Or at the least the Officers could hold their punches in case that happened.

The level of funding is determined (with input from Treasury) by by the Officers of Parliament Committee, a cross-party committee of MPs. That committee is chaired by the Speaker who is the nominal 'minister in charge' of the Officers. So today's motion doesn't come as a complete surprise to MPs.

The Three Officers of Parliament

Who are these three entities known as Officers of Parliament?…

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