Parliament's biannual Scrutiny Week: A cascade of diminishing attention

Parliament's biannual Scrutiny Weeks involve a sudden glut of oversight, substantial enough to sate even the hungriest political appetite.

But despite the sudden feast, these long days of interrogation sample only a soupçon of the underlying information, and the stories that reach the public are but a tincture of that.

That is inevitable. Oversight of government involves a cascade of diminishing attention.

The Scrutiny Week Basics

Scrutiny Week is a bi-annual parliamentary event. It's a recent coalescence of longer periods of scrutiny that ran alongside the normal House sittings. Under the old approach Select Committees tried to manage scrutiny on top of their normal business, often some government ministers managed to limit their appearances or weasel out entirely.

That is harder now. Scrutiny is the only game in town and Ministers and Crown Entity Executives are expected to make themselves available if required.

Scrutiny week occurs at all because Parliament enforces it on governments. It's a reminder that Parliament is in charge, despite governments' tendency to pretend otherwise.

What is being scrutinized is the small 'g' government. Not just the cabinet but all the various aspects and arms of the machinery it runs or funds.

The two annual scrutiny weeks are different. June's week focuses on ministers' plans (as expressed in the budget, so are much more minister-centric), while December's annual review week of scrutiny focuses on outcomes. At least that's the theory, but as Yogi Berra said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." In practice politics and personality tend to insert themselves into the gap.

National MP James Meagre, who is now a minister but was previously the Justice Committee Chair, has suggested to Parliament's rules committee that December's scrutiny week might be benefited by ministers' absences. Officials are more likely to be forthcoming if left to speak without their boss's assistance.

A small window on a large engine

The cascade of diminishing attention begins with the size and complexity of the bureaucracy.

There are nearly 40 Government Departments. Those alone are a lot to keep on top of. Then there are 150 or so core crown entities and (according to the Office of the Auditor General), more than twenty five hundred other entities and organisations outside central government, established by statute, and often receiving at least some government funding.

These numbers wobble over time. Most governments shutter or combine some, but inevitably create others. Many of the multitude of smaller entities are overseen by larger ones, but they are unlikely to come up within Scrutiny Week.

There are, obviously, far too many entities for individual scrutiny by Parliament's few MPs - fewer than 60 realistically, as it is Opposition MPs who ask the tough questions.

In reality, scrutiny of government entities occurs primarily outside Parliament. It begins internally, then by their boards, from oversight agencies, from the State Services Commission, from ministers, from auditors, and from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). This oversight is helped by detailed annual Statements of Intent, and Annual Reports to self-report on those.

All that reporting filters upwards to Parliament. Once Parliament is involved Committees work with the OAG to choose which entities to review face-to-face. The Committees send out vast questionnaires and follow-ups, and schedule hearings involving managers and (usually) their responsible ministers.

Diminishing attention

This Scrutiny Week, Parliament's twelve specialist subject Select Committees are undertaking in-person reviews of 88 different ministries, agencies and entities. Nearly ninety reviews is a lot in a week, but it pales beside 40 ministries, 190 core entities and more than two thousand other bits and bobs.

Each of the public hearings is matched by private preparatory meetings (for planning, setting agendas, and briefings from auditors etc). So MPs should be prepared, and hearings range from 30 minutes to multiple hours; but even in multiple hours how many aspects of the Health, Education or Justice system can be carefully examined?

Typically the elements under attention are a fraction of the whole.

The final attention hurdle

The diminishing attention really kicks in at the final hurdle to public consumption of information - media coverage. This week how many of the 88 hearings have you read or heard about? Realistically, just a handful.

The Parliamentary Press Gallery is somewhat diminished, and its various media outlets are mostly shadows of their former selves. They are simply unable to spread across so many different potential news stories.

So the media focus is typically on the big ministries like Health, Education, Social Welfare or Police. These core ministries are reviewed every time. There will usually also be attention on things that have attracted recent media, public or political attention - if a relevant hearing is on offer.

But that is probably fewer than a dozen of the 88 hearings. The end result might be a few dozen stories focused on just a few things said, in only a few hearings. From the public perspective, the rest is unnoticed.

If you want more you can find it. You can read Annual Reports, Auditor General releases, Statements of Intent, the Select Committee reports that come from scrutiny (and are inevitably a partial representation of the hearings). There are many layers of reporting, and it is often accessible all the way down to Education Review Office reports on individual schools.

And if you really want to find out what happened in all of the face-to-face hearings from a Scrutiny Week you can watch all of the public hearings via the Parliament website. A warning though, 88 hearings will likely take your entire Christmas holiday.

*RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.

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