Parliament’s to do list: the last of the budget debate and other money matters

MPs haven’t quite finished the debate on the budget (which is the Government’s spending plan) so that will get finished up this week.

Question time will happen as usual each day but the general debate will be replaced with yet another debate about money.

The plan for this week (June 12 - 14) is below.

MPs are required to be at Parliament for scheduled sitting days, so called because MPs sit in those green leather chairs when they’re in the debating chamber. An agenda known as the Order Paper is published online each sitting day outlining what business the House plans to get through. But plans change and time is limited so below is what they’ll try their best to get through.

The Last of the Budget Debate (Tuesday)

What:

• The continued second reading of the Appropriations (2018/19 Estimates) Bill (a.k.a the budget).

• One hour twenty-six minutes remaining - it's a long talk that has followed question time over the last few weeks since it was announced on May 17.

• On that day in May, the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson introduced the Appropriations Bill which was read a first time without debate. Then he delivered a copy of his budget statement to the Speaker, Clerk, PM, other party leaders and Hansard.

• The Minister of Finance then read the budget statement (they can take as long as they like) as part of their speech to kick off the second reading of the Appropriations Bill. They also get to speak last to address any comments made during the debate.

• The actual Budget Debate is usually started by the Leader of the Opposition (National 20 minutes), and followed by the other party leaders: the Prime Minister (Labour, 20 minutes), Deputy Prime Minister (NZ First, 20 minutes), Greens (20 Minutes), ACT (10 Minutes), other MPs (10 minutes each). The ‘other MPs’ is where we’re up to now.

Why:

• Running a country costs money. And the Government needs permission from Parliament both to collect money and to spend it.

• The budget debate is the beginning of a very long parliamentary process of approving the Government’s spending plan for the year from July 1st. It begins the debate on a piece of legislation [the Appropriations (2018/19 Estimates) Bill] which outlines spending on all the many dozens of aspects of the wider ‘government’ - from schools and hospitals, to spies and science; from artificial limbs to environmental protection, and from taxes to lotteries.

• In total the debate lasts for 15 hours and then the various ‘Votes’ (the topic sections of the budget: Health, Education etc) go to various Select Committees to be examined and defended by Ministers (this part has started already) before arriving back at the House for 11 hours of Committee Stage (the Appropriations Debate) and a three hour third reading.
  That’s 29 hours or more of House time plus the many Select Committee meetings.

• Along with the Appropriations Bill, the Government will also ask Parliament to pass an Imprest Supply measure to actually give it some interim walking-around-money while the House considers the Appropriations.

Regional Fuel Tax (Tuesday)

What:

• A bill to enable a local tax to help gather money for regions to fund transport infrastructure programmes that wouldn’t otherwise get any money or are delayed.

• The official bill title is the Land Transport Management (Regional Fuel Tax) Amendment Bill and will have its second reading.

Making Multinationals Pay Tax (Tuesday/Thursday)

What:

• The committee stage of the Taxation (Neutralising Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Bill. The bill is pulled apart and debated part by part. There’s no time limit on this part and the Speaker leaves the chair while the House is in Committee.

• This may be picked up on Thursday as well, to finish off the Committee Stage and third reading, if there’s time.

Why:

• Tax law is a bit like an arms race. Governments write laws to try and force companies and individuals to pay their share of tax, while they, in turn, look for loopholes to exploit so as to minimise their tax.

• This bill focuses on BEPS tax avoidance schemes whereby multinationals move profits from high tax countries (NZ) to low tax countries (tax havens); so they can report a loss in NZ and a massive profit somewhere else where tax rates are negligible.

Military Justice (Tuesday)

What:

• The second reading of the Military Justice Legislation Amendment Bill.

• It will enhance victims’ rights by updating the military justice system and aligning it with the criminal justice system.

• It’s an omnibus bill which means it amends more than one Act: the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971, the Court Martial Act 2007, and the Court Martial Appeals Act 1953.

More Money Matters (Wednesday)

What:

• The usual Wednesday general debate (which is where MPs can bring up issues that wouldn’t normally be brought up in the House) will be replaced with a debate on He Puna Hao Pātiki, 2018 Investment Statement: Investing for Wellbeing.

• He Puna Hao Pātiki is the New Zealand Treasury’s 2018 Investment Statement. It analyses the government balance sheet – which represents the investment made by government on behalf of New Zealanders in things like schools, hospitals, financial assets and commercial enterprises.

Why:

• The Investment Statement meets a reporting requirement under The Public Finance Act 1989 and describes and states the value of Crown assets and liabilities.

• It’s Treasury’s second investment statement and builds on the first statement published in 2014.

Members' Day (Wednesday)

Every alternate Wednesday in the House, time is devoted to bills by members who are not ministers (like Opposition MPs and backbenchers). They’re called members' bills. Members' bills up for debate this week include:

• The Friendly Societies and Credit Unions (Regulatory Improvements) Amendment Bill  is in committee stage. The bill seeks to align compliance and regulation for Friendly Societies and Credit Unions with other finance providers.

• The second reading of the Domestic Violence - Victims’ Protection Bill - this is an omnibus bill which means it will change more than one Act. One of those changes includes enabling paid leave for victims to enable them to deal with the effects of domestic violence.   

• The Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment Bill will have its second reading. The bill will mean 16 and 17 year olds who wish to marry must apply to the court.  

• The first reading continued of the Patents (Advancement Patents) Amendment Bill which will give intellectual property protection rights to advancements that don’t quality as an invention for a standard patent.

• The first reading of the Companies (Clarification of Dividend Rules in Companies) Amendment Bill which will clarify rules around dividends (money paid out to shareholders).

Even More Money Business

What:

• The first reading of the Appropriations (2017/18 Supplementary Estimates) Bill but no debate for this stage.

• This bill signs off on spending over the last financial year that wasn’t quite accounted for in Budget 2017.

Straighten Up and Fly Right

What:

• All stages of the Subordinate Legislation Confirmation Bill with a debate on the second reading only.

• This bill is a tidy up bill will confirm a Civil Aviation regulation that would otherwise expire at the end of June.

International trade treaty debate - CPTPP

What:

• A two hour debate on a select committee report on the International treaty examination of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

• The report is from the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. Legislation is often needed to put laws in place that will ensure treaty obligations are met. The House is debating the Treaty report rather than the legislation that will come later.  

• The CPTPP is a trade and investment agreement between 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region; New Zealand, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

• The CPTPP is based on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) which included the United States until it withdrew in January 2017.

You can see how much the House gets done each sitting day by going here: Daily progress in the House