Willis Nicola; Kuriger BarbaraAPPROPRIATION (2023/24 SUPPLEMENTARY ESTIMATES) BILLIMPREST SUPPLY (FIRST FOR 2024/25) BILLSecond ReadingsHon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I move That the Appropriation (2023/24 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and the Imprest Supply (First for 2024/25) Bill be now read a second time.These two bills are quite technical so I think it would assist the House if I explain what each of them are and what purpose they serve. The overriding principle here as set out in legislation in the Public Finance Act is that the Government cannot incur expenses or capital expenditure without Parliament's authority. The Budget for 2024-25 was released and had its second reading on Budget day 30 May. However it won't actually be passed until later this year. The purpose then of the imprest supply bill is to bridge that gap between the start of the new financial year on 1 July and the point at which the House confirms the Budget. So more precisely this bill provides financial authority to incur expenses and capital expenditure for the first three months of the 2024-25 financial year before the passing of the Appropriation (2024/25 Estimates) Bill. In addition it is standard practice for imprest supply bills to cover the possibility that fiscal risks materialise and to also allow for the uncertain timing and spread of expenditure. The overall amount being sought in this bill is consistent with the amounts sought in previous years. The imprest supply bill seeks authority for the Government to incur a maximum of $34 billion in expenses $6 billion in capital expenditure and $1 billion in capital injections. So that is the purpose of the imprest supply bill—it is an interim spending authority. As its name reveals it is the first imprest supply bill for this financial year 2024-25 and there will be a second imprest supply bill later this year.The imprest supply bill is forward-looking whereas the Supplementary Estimates bill is all about the past. It seeks Parliament's approval of changes to appropriations and some new appropriations which occurred in the 2023-24 financial year. These are changes that the Government agreed to between April 2023 when the 2023-24 Estimates were finalised and April 2024 when the 2023-24 Supplementary Estimates were finalised. So spending against those appropriations has already been incurred under the authority of imprest supply. However this spending must then be confirmed by Parliament before the end of the 2023-24 financial year—that is by 30 June or four days from now. Otherwise it becomes unauthorised which is something I think members would want to avoid although I can see there's at least one member sitting opposite me who has been involved in unauthorised expenditure. The Finance and Expenditure—Hon Dr Deborah Russell: Oh so unnecessary. Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Ihumātao comes to mind. The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on the 2023-24 Supplementary Estimates and has no matters I understand to bring to the attention of the House. It recommends that these Supplementary Estimates be accepted. I thank the members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee for their prompt scrutiny and their report on this matter.I said before that the Supplementary Estimates covers changes that the Government agreed to for 2023-24. In fact there were of course two Governments in that financial year and the change of Government part way through that year makes the Supplementary Estimates bill a little more interesting than usual. In particular many changes relate to the decisions the coalition Government took at the mini-Budget in December and at the Budget in May.Together Budget 2024 and the mini-Budget reduced spending in the 2023-24 financial year. Actually within weeks of coming to office this Government managed to make changes that even with a little bit of that financial year left to go saved $1.1 billion. That is $1.1 billion hard earned by New Zealanders working hard in their jobs their businesses and their communities. We saved them that money and those changes are reflected in the Supplementary Estimates bill. In part the Government was able to make significant savings because as I said we got on to things very early with a mini-Budget in December soon after the coalition was formed judging the urgency of stopping some programmes of expenditure in order to ensure those dollars could be reprioritised to better uses at a later date including for example uses such as funding cancer medications and funding medicines for New Zealanders who would otherwise miss out—175000 New Zealanders none the less.Members may recall that the mini-Budget among other things included stopping work on Labour's so-called industry transformation plans—I'm not sure a tear has been wept for them—stopping work on the Lake Onslow pumped hydro idea otherwise known as Dr Wood's white elephant; stopping work on Labour's income insurance scheme otherwise known as the jobs tax; repealing mandatory union-style agreements across industries in a back-to-the-1970s move otherwise called in Labour's strange use of the word fair" pay agreements; and exiting the Crown's contributions to the highly controversial Let's Get Wellington Moving which had the grand effect of slowing Wellington down.Other savings that affected the 2023-24 year were made as part of the Budget process with some being part of the 100-day plan—for example repeal of the three waters programme. That returned $270 million in the 2023-24 financial year alone. Sadly we didn't come into Government in time to save the $1.2 billion—$1.2 billion ladies and gentlemen—that had already been wasted on that programme.There are many more changes both spending and saving in the Supplementary Estimates. I said at the beginning that these bills are technical. They are technical but they are also very important to New Zealand's public finances. They are part of the system that ensures the Government has the proper authority from Parliament to incur expenditure. I commend these bills to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."