Parliament's select committees hold dedicated review weeks to question ministers about government spending plans. The next one starts 16 June 2025 and runs through 19 June. Another is scheduled for 1–5 December.

During these weeks, committees pause their regular work and focus almost entirely on asking ministers detailed questions about how their departments will spend money and deliver services. This is called the estimates process.

Here's how it works. Each government agency gets an amount of money Parliament approves for it — called a Vote. Agencies also plan what services they'll deliver with that money. Ministers and their officials come before the relevant committee and explain their Vote, their service plans, and answer questions.

The numbers show the scale. In June 2024, committees held 60 separate hearings over about 116 hours. Around 120 ministers and officials answered questions. By design, committees spend much more time on scrutiny during these weeks than they normally would.

One notable rule: the Prime Minister does not appear. RNZ reported on 14 June 2026 that the PM is exempt from Scrutiny Week hearings. This means the head of government faces no concentrated committee questioning about their responsibilities during this process — which matters in a parliament without an upper house to provide a second layer of review.

The same RNZ report identified a real problem: there is simply too much happening too fast. With 60 hearings in four days across multiple committees, journalists cannot cover everything. Much of what ministers say goes unexamined in public. Officials can give long, technical answers that use up time without making things clearer.

There is a tension here. Concentration works well in some ways: ministers cannot easily delay or downgrade estimates hearings when an entire week is built around them, and committees develop better working rhythms than they would from single isolated hearings. But the same tight schedule that creates pressure also means committees cannot probe deeply, and the public cannot easily follow what is happening.

The December round runs five days and typically gets less attention because it sits near the end of the parliamentary year when political focus is elsewhere.

For those preparing for hearings, preparation pays off. Ministers who know their spending details and performance data move through questioning more smoothly; those who lean on officials to answer technical questions often find sessions drag longer. The tight schedule also means a badly-handled hearing early in the week has no time to fade before Parliament breaks.

Scrutiny Week is not a complete answer to accountability questions that political scientists have debated for years. It is one tool among several. But as a concentrated block of financial oversight, the June round is the most visible exercise of committee power most of Parliament's committees will have until December.