June 16, 2024 • 5 mins
The Government's spending plans are set to be examined during Parliament's first-ever Scrutiny Week.
Normal sitting hours have been suspended to allow select committees to call in ministers and their ministries' bosses for questioning about the Budget.
It's hoped to improve on recent Parliaments' lacklustre scrutiny of governments.
Leader of the House Chris Bishop says it's a chance for ministers to front up and explain what they're going to do with the money.
"To be honest we've always done that, it's just that this year, we're doing it in a one-week period - and most of the committees will be meeting for longer."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Parliament's having its first ever scrutiny week. It's an idea
borrow from Australia, apparently to improve oversight of government actions.
Select committees will call ministers and department bosses and for
questioning over the government spending plans. The Leader of the House,
Christ Bishop is with us on this one. Very good
morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Anything going to come out of it, literally, well.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I think it will lead to best scrutiny of what
the government's up to. I mean, fundamentally, the government's responsible
to Parliament and we've got to go to Parliament and
us into appropriate the money. That's what the budget's all about.
And so ministers are going to front up and explain
what they want to do with the money and talk
about their portfolios. To be honest, we've always done that.
It's just that this year we're doing it in a
(00:38):
one week period and most of the committees will be
meeting for longer. I mean to give you an example.
I used to get frustrated when I was in the position.
We'd get MB which is the ad Ministry, Business, Innovation
of Employment. It's got billions of dollars. We've got about
thirteen different ministers We used to get them in for
an hour and by the time you by the time
you sort of divide up the questions and there's a
sort of pray hamble, a conclusion and all the rest
(01:00):
that they have like seventeen minutes. With MB in charge
of like you know, all of these very important things,
he'd have barely any time to get into it. So
it was pretty it was pretty one mover likely to
be honest. But so I think this will be a
better way.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Will you front up as a minister of for example,
something like fast track can be asked about that or not.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, no, I'm up tomorrow. I've got an hour of
forty minutes on the housing. I've got an hour on
infrastructure on tomorrow as well, I think, and I've got
support and Rex. So yeah, all of my portfolios, I'm frank.
All ministers will be appearing over the course of the week,
so for varying lengths of time. I know Nicola Wallis
is up for three hours. I think it's on Wednesday
morning to the on the Finance Committee, other other sort
(01:43):
of slightly lesser Well, every ministry is important, but you know,
not ever gonna pay for three not ever gonna be
for three hours, so I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Get Yeah, all those loser ministers, what you're saying, all
those all those all those malcontents in the background haven't
said that.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, well I'm I'm on sport for half an hour
for example. Bit different, defind it?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Okay, what is it political? I mean, what's stopping it
just being a you know, a bonfight.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well that'll be over to the opposition. I mean, I'll
be asking the bulk of the questions, so we'll front
up and we'll you know, they've asked some preliminary questions
in advance, but the actual hearings themselves are over to
the opposition to make make of them what they will.
They can be very political my own experience from having
been in oppositions, when you get really political, it doesn't work.
(02:29):
It's actually about getting into the numbers. You know, what
is what is the government trying to get from parliament
to do it to run government? What are the programs
that you are you are funding? What are the programs
that you are cutting? Because this government, of course has
made a lot of fiscal savings, so that will be
part of it. And what are you trying to achieve
with the money that you were seeking from Parliament. So
(02:50):
it should be about that now. As you know, Mike,
policy has been politics. It's not always about that.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
No, that is true. Will it be televised because a
loser like me loves a good question time and I'd
be into this.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I think the all of the select mineies have got
Facebook feeds and I'm pretty sure they still live streating
most of the hearings, so they'll be on Facebook. And
I'm not sure about Parliament TV, but they'll definitely be
on Facebook. I think.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, let me grab you while you as infrastructure and
it's these PPPs you were talking about with local government
last week? Is there a disconnect with people understanding what
you're trying to do? You're looking at building stuff and
using other mechanisms as opposed to just the taxpayer or
the ratepayer.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Are people up against this?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh? Look, that's exactly what we're trying to do. And
you know, I look at it like this. If we
can get a situation where we build some toll roads
in this country and the super Fund all the key
we say the fund helps fund the toll roads, how
good would it be when people drive down one on
one of the toll roads and they pay five bucks
or whatever, knowing that they're helping to save for their retirement.
I just think we need to be open to these
(03:54):
sort of prospects. We need to be open to foreign capital,
we need to be open to the super Fund, and
we need to be opened to toile roads. We just
need to get on a build some stuff in this
country and PPPs are away to do it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Well. I was just watching Kereen macinnulty's saying, Oh, they're
leaving it all to the councils and stuff. So that's
not the case, is.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
It, Well not at all. I mean this government's been
more money on infrastructure than any government and uses on history,
so we're really stepping up. What we're saying is we
just need to use new we need to use new tools.
The Labor Party had a complete aversion to private capital.
They never wanted to use private capital for anything. We're
very open to that prospect because we've got an infrastructure deficit.
(04:31):
We need to solve it.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Exactly. The other thing, there's fast Track. So last week
I'm reading about Eden Park. They're in front of the
Select Committee and they were saying, well, with the fast
Track we can yes, still talk to locals, but we
can move on and get more you know, concerts, et cetera,
into an Eden park. Then I note over the weekend
of the insurers are saying, well, you can build better
resilience for natural disasters because you can make it happen quicker.
(04:52):
That's the good side of fast Track. Why has Fastrack
got so many negative headlines?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Ah? I think, look, Hayter's going to hate it, you know,
Mike end this game. There's a few people were sort
of professional, professionally negative about everything, and look, I just
think this country's got economic troubles. We've worried about our
place in the world. We've got a country that needs
(05:18):
to grow for the first time in a while, and
fast Trek as a way to do it, and we'll
be pushing ahead with it, open to sensible changes. But
you know, we've got a lot of work to do
in this country to get it back on track.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Appreciate your time, Chris Bishop, who's the Infrastructure Minister, Leader
of the House and of course part of the first
day of strategy. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks that'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
Parliament's having its first ever scrutiny week. It's an idea
borrow from Australia, apparently to improve oversight of government actions.
Select committees will call ministers and department bosses and for
questioning over the government spending plans. The Leader of the House,
Christ Bishop is with us on this one. Very good
morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Anything going to come out of it, literally, well.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I think it will lead to best scrutiny of what
the government's up to. I mean, fundamentally, the government's responsible
to Parliament and we've got to go to Parliament and
us into appropriate the money. That's what the budget's all about.
And so ministers are going to front up and explain
what they want to do with the money and talk
about their portfolios. To be honest, we've always done that.
It's just that this year we're doing it in a
(00:38):
one week period and most of the committees will be
meeting for longer. I mean to give you an example.
I used to get frustrated when I was in the position.
We'd get MB which is the ad Ministry, Business, Innovation
of Employment. It's got billions of dollars. We've got about
thirteen different ministers We used to get them in for
an hour and by the time you by the time
you sort of divide up the questions and there's a
sort of pray hamble, a conclusion and all the rest
(01:00):
that they have like seventeen minutes. With MB in charge
of like you know, all of these very important things,
he'd have barely any time to get into it. So
it was pretty it was pretty one mover likely to
be honest. But so I think this will be a
better way.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Will you front up as a minister of for example,
something like fast track can be asked about that or not.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, no, I'm up tomorrow. I've got an hour of
forty minutes on the housing. I've got an hour on
infrastructure on tomorrow as well, I think, and I've got
support and Rex. So yeah, all of my portfolios, I'm frank.
All ministers will be appearing over the course of the week,
so for varying lengths of time. I know Nicola Wallis
is up for three hours. I think it's on Wednesday
morning to the on the Finance Committee, other other sort
(01:43):
of slightly lesser Well, every ministry is important, but you know,
not ever gonna pay for three not ever gonna be
for three hours, so I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Get Yeah, all those loser ministers, what you're saying, all
those all those all those malcontents in the background haven't
said that.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, well I'm I'm on sport for half an hour
for example. Bit different, defind it?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Okay, what is it political? I mean, what's stopping it
just being a you know, a bonfight.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well that'll be over to the opposition. I mean, I'll
be asking the bulk of the questions, so we'll front
up and we'll you know, they've asked some preliminary questions
in advance, but the actual hearings themselves are over to
the opposition to make make of them what they will.
They can be very political my own experience from having
been in oppositions, when you get really political, it doesn't work.
(02:29):
It's actually about getting into the numbers. You know, what
is what is the government trying to get from parliament
to do it to run government? What are the programs
that you are you are funding? What are the programs
that you are cutting? Because this government, of course has
made a lot of fiscal savings, so that will be
part of it. And what are you trying to achieve
with the money that you were seeking from Parliament. So
(02:50):
it should be about that now. As you know, Mike,
policy has been politics. It's not always about that.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
No, that is true. Will it be televised because a
loser like me loves a good question time and I'd
be into this.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I think the all of the select mineies have got
Facebook feeds and I'm pretty sure they still live streating
most of the hearings, so they'll be on Facebook. And
I'm not sure about Parliament TV, but they'll definitely be
on Facebook. I think.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, let me grab you while you as infrastructure and
it's these PPPs you were talking about with local government
last week? Is there a disconnect with people understanding what
you're trying to do? You're looking at building stuff and
using other mechanisms as opposed to just the taxpayer or
the ratepayer.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Are people up against this?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh? Look, that's exactly what we're trying to do. And
you know, I look at it like this. If we
can get a situation where we build some toll roads
in this country and the super Fund all the key
we say the fund helps fund the toll roads, how
good would it be when people drive down one on
one of the toll roads and they pay five bucks
or whatever, knowing that they're helping to save for their retirement.
I just think we need to be open to these
(03:54):
sort of prospects. We need to be open to foreign capital,
we need to be open to the super Fund, and
we need to be opened to toile roads. We just
need to get on a build some stuff in this
country and PPPs are away to do it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Well. I was just watching Kereen macinnulty's saying, Oh, they're
leaving it all to the councils and stuff. So that's
not the case, is.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
It, Well not at all. I mean this government's been
more money on infrastructure than any government and uses on history,
so we're really stepping up. What we're saying is we
just need to use new we need to use new tools.
The Labor Party had a complete aversion to private capital.
They never wanted to use private capital for anything. We're
very open to that prospect because we've got an infrastructure deficit.
(04:31):
We need to solve it.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Exactly. The other thing, there's fast Track. So last week
I'm reading about Eden Park. They're in front of the
Select Committee and they were saying, well, with the fast
Track we can yes, still talk to locals, but we
can move on and get more you know, concerts, et cetera,
into an Eden park. Then I note over the weekend
of the insurers are saying, well, you can build better
resilience for natural disasters because you can make it happen quicker.
(04:52):
That's the good side of fast Track. Why has Fastrack
got so many negative headlines?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Ah? I think, look, Hayter's going to hate it, you know,
Mike end this game. There's a few people were sort
of professional, professionally negative about everything, and look, I just
think this country's got economic troubles. We've worried about our
place in the world. We've got a country that needs
(05:18):
to grow for the first time in a while, and
fast Trek as a way to do it, and we'll
be pushing ahead with it, open to sensible changes. But
you know, we've got a lot of work to do
in this country to get it back on track.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Appreciate your time, Chris Bishop, who's the Infrastructure Minister, Leader
of the House and of course part of the first
day of strategy. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks that'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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