11654 (2024). Hon Barbara Edmonds to the Minister of Statistics

11654 (2024). Hon Barbara Edmonds to the Minister of Statistics: Which of the new policy initiatives in the Minister’s responsible Vote for Budget 2022, if any, does the Minister consider to be poor performing as identified in Cabinet Paper CAB-23-SUB-0490?

Hon Andrew Bayly: I refer the Member to the response to written question 10 in the Annual Review of Stats NZ 2022/23 and response to written question 33 in the 2023/24 estimates examination for information on evaluations of new spending initiatives in Budget 2022. The Cabinet paper referenced by the Member referred to one of the purposes of the Budget 2024 Initial Baseline Exercise as to identify “poor performing spending areas”. Cabinet also agreed that savings “should be focused on low value programmes, programmes that do not align with Government priorities, and reducing non-essential back-office functions (including contractor and consultant spending)”. Subject to final Cabinet decisions, this could conceivably include initiatives funded at Budget 2022. But final announcements regarding this will be made on Budget Day.