National MPs 'misappropriate' time for questions in the House

National is being accused of making a mockery of Parliament's processes by deliberately not giving itself enough time to answer questions from Opposition MPs in the House.Leader of the House Louise Upston says National has tried to fix the system to ensure that does not happen, but not all parties agreed on proposed changes.In the House on Tuesday, MPs took part in the Estimates debate, which scrutinises Budget spending decisions.The debate runs for 11 hours over a number of sitting days.Each party is given a certain amount of time to speak, spread across the course of the debate, and the party whips allocate that time between their members.Nearing the end of the debate on Tuesday afternoon, Upston - in her capacity as Social Development Minister - refused to continue answering questions because her time allocation was up.Chair Greg O'Connor had earlier warned members asking questions to be mindful of that."Her colleagues before have... let's just say, misappropriated her time," he said.Upston answered some further questions from the Greens' Ricardo Menéndez March and Labour's Willow-Jean Prime, then stopped."I have no more time, I'm not speaking, all right, so I don't want to upset anyone, we've tried to improve this process and the Labour Party didn't agree," she said."You're speaking right now!" Menéndez March said.O'Connor said MPs could continue to ask questions, but it was up to National how it allocated its time.Questions continued, but Upston did not."Mr Chair, we have an allocation, I'm not going to take time off following ministers where there are energy, resources, health and housing (still to be debated)," said Upston.Menéndez March asked to grant 15 seconds of his own allocated time to Upston so she could give yes or no answers, which O'Connor allowed."Doesn't mean I'm gonna use it," Upston said.She answered one further question, then stayed silent."Crickets," Prime said.Menéndez March later told RNZ ministers were entitled to do that, but it showed National did not take scrutiny of the executive seriously, choosing to give lengthy speeches in answer to simple questions to run down the clock."It makes a mockery of a process that is supposed to allow for the scrutiny of ministers, and for ministers to be accountable to decisions that they have made," he said."It is up to the National Party on how to manage that time, but when throughout the debate you see ministers using their time to give political speeches and throw platitudes instead of answering questions, it is no surprise that as we draw close to the end of this debate, ministers are choosing to not answer questions."Menéndez March said he did not get adequate answers to questions about whether any beneficiaries lost payments as part of a new policy change, and about cuts to the accommodation supplement for low-income homeowners.Upston said National had proposed trialling a change to the Estimates debate to ensure ministers would not run out of time."National has sought to make improvements to what we know is not a great system but these haven't been agreed to by all parties," she said."We agree the format doesn't work as it should."Labour has been approached for comment.