Every year the Queensland Government proposes a budget to the Parliament.

Parliament in turn considers the Budget in the form of the Appropriation Bills. One Bill sets aside money for the running of the Parliament; another, for the running of the government in general. These two Bills are part of a large suite of documents that together are the Budget Papers [1]. Find links to all papers here: https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/resource/state-budget-2025-26/.

Part of the Parliament’s consideration of the Budget is a process called “estimates”, generally understood to be a series of Parliamentary Committee meetings where Members ask questions of Ministers and senior officials, eventually reporting to the Parliament.

This brief paper explores the origins, purpose and process of Estimates as a fundamental feature of Queensland democracy.

Origins of estimates

Charles I, King of England and Ireland and King of Scotland, the three kingdoms, was beheaded as a tyrant during the tumultuous 17^th Century.

Charles believed in the Divine Right of Kings and ruled, or tried to rule, as absolute monarch.

In 1639, Charles raised an army without the aid of Parliament. Charles’ army engaged in the First and Second Bishops’ wars against Covenanters, Scots Presbyterians. The wars did not go well for Charles precipitating the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (England, Scotland and Ireland over which Charles reigned). His military failures and their financial impact diminished Charles’ standing with the House of Lords that had previously supported him in his political struggle for supremacy of the Crown over the Parliament.

Charles’ struggles were not just with the parliamentarians but also confronting challenges from bishops and lords, and war or rebellion in Scotland and Ireland. The House of Commons became more muscular in response to an absolute monarch raising money outside parliament’s authority.

These were violent times, fuelled by dissatisfaction over taxation, sectarianism and wars. The independence of Parliament from the Crown, and its ascendency over it, took place over centuries, not just during Charles’ reign.

In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, Parliament legislated its meetings, not relying on royal summons; obliging the King to bring proposed taxes to Parliament; and asserting the rights of commoners to access the law. None-the-less, Tudor and Stuart monarchs sometimes ruled without regard to the Parliament.

Charles’ military failures in Scotland put pressure on the public purse. He sought to raise taxes to fund his army. In 1641, the second year of the Long Parliament, the Commons convened a committee of the House to examine the “ways and means” by which the monarch raised monies to supply his armies. That Committee eventually became embedded in the supremacy of Parliament over the Crown.[2]

The estimates process was for the King to request money and the Commons to respond to the request. The response was informed by detailed review of the ways and means and the estimates of how much money was to be raised. [3]

Modern Estimates in Queensland

It is the Estimates of the Ways and Means of the budgets that survive in various forms to this day in Queensland.

Financial accountability

Estimates, along with audit, is an important financial accountability measure of the Parliament. Estimates look forward: anticipated revenue raised by various “ways and means” are supplied to the Government for its various purposes. They are called estimates because they are an informed estimation of how much money will be raised in what way, and how much will be needed for the various purposes of government.

Audit (conducted by the independent parliamentary officer, the Auditor-General) looks backward and is referable to accrual revenue raised and actual expenditure: was money spent as intended; did the expenditure achieve its intended purpose; are the financial controls appropriate to manage money and so on.

Ways and Means – how money is intended to be raised (revenue)
Supply – how money is intended to be used (expenditure)

Queensland, first as a Colony, then as a sovereign State of the Federated Australia, adopted procedures from the House of Commons. Included among those was the Committee of the Whole on Ways and Means.

Scrutiny of the Executive’s budgetary priorities was not always exacting, especially after the abolition of the upper house (Legislative Council) in 1922. (Such is the nature of a Committee of the Whole.)

It was not until 1988 that a Public Accounts Committee and Public Works Committee of the Queensland Parliament were created in the context of the seminal Fitzgerald Inquiry that commenced late 1986. Fitzgerald noted^[5]

It is to be hoped that the institution of the Public Accounts Committee was the product of a new awareness of the Government’s obligation to account to Parliament… If the Government is to be genuinely accountable, the Committee must not become merely an arm of the Executive.

After the election of the Goss Government late in 1989, various reforms strengthened the focus on parliamentary review of budget matters, including Estimates Committees, appointed for each budget by sessional orders. They were labelled A, B, C and so on.

The full suite of budget papers mentioned above no longer includes a document called the estimates of the probable ways and means. The information, now in a more sophisticated form and government by various public accounting standards. Much of the information is found in Budget Paper No. 2, the Budget Strategy and Outlook, including (this year, at page 51, this diagram showing the “ways and means” of old.

In 2011 a system of portfolio committees was instituted with stronger remit, encompassing portfolio issues and charges with review of annual Estimates for each portfolio.

By Chapter 31 of the Standing Orders, the Annual Appropriation Bills are considered by the Portfolio Committees. These Committees are set out in Schedule 6 of the Standing Orders.

For this coming Estimates, the hearings are scheduled as follows (check the published schedule here: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-Committees/Estimates-Hearings).

Recent reforms of Estimates include the Speaker chairing each Committee in consideration of the estimates (except for those where the Speaker is a witness, to be chaired by the Deputy Speaker).[6]

The Speaker is Hon Pat Weir MP, Member for Condamine.[7]

The 7 current Portfolio Committees and their membership and remit are as follows:

STATE DEVELOPMENT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND WORKS COMMITTEE

Mr Jim McDonald MP, Member for Lockyer (Chair)

Ms Jonty Bush MP, Member for Cooper (Deputy Chair)

Mr Terry James MP, Member for Mulgrave

Mr David Kempton MP, Member for Cook

Mr Shane King MP, Member for Kurwongbah

Mr Bart Mellish MP, Member for Aspley

• State Development, Infrastructure, Planning and Industrial Relations
• Transport and Main Roads
• Housing, Public Works and Youth
• Sport, Racing, Olympic and Paralympic Games

EDUCATION, ARTS AND COMMUNITIES COMMITTEE

Mr Nigel Hutton MP, Member for Keppel (Chair)

Ms Corrine McMillan MP, Member for Mansfield (Deputy Chair)

Ms Wendy Bourne MP, Member for Ipswich West

Mr Nicholas (Nick) Dametto MP, Member for Hinchinbrook

Ms Ariana Doolan MP, Member for Pumicestone

Mr Jon Krause MP, Member for Scenic Rim

• Education and Arts
• Women, Women’s Economic Security, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and Multiculturalism
• Families, Seniors, Disability Services, Child Safety and Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence

GOVERNANCE, ENERGY AND FINANCE COMMITTEE

Mr Michael Crandon MP, Member for Coomera (Chair)

Mr Chris Whiting MP, Member for Bancroft (Deputy Chair)

Ms Bisma Asif MP, Member for Sandgate

Mr John Barounis MP, Member for Maryborough

Mr Lance McCallum MP, Member for Bundamba

Ms Kendall Morton MP, Member for Caloundra

• Premier and Cabinet, Veterans
• Treasury, Energy and Home Ownership
• Finance, Trade, Employment and Training

HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT AND INNOVATION COMMITTEE

Mr Robert (Rob) Molhoek MP, Member for Southport (Chair)

Mr Joseph (Joe) Kelly MP, Member for Greenslopes (Deputy Chair)

Ms Sandra (Sandy) Bolton MP, Member for Noosa

Ms Kerri-Anne Dooley MP, Member for Redcliffe

Mr David Lee MP, Member for Hervey Bay

Dr Barbara O’Shea MP, Member for South Brisbane

• Health and Ambulance Services
• Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation

JUSTICE, INTEGRITY AND COMMUNITY SAFETY COMMITTEE

Mr Martin Hunt MP, Member for Nicklin (Chair)

Mr Peter Russo MP, Member for Toohey (Deputy Chair)

Mr Michael Berkman MP, Member for Maiwar

Mr Russell Field MP, Member for Capalaba

Ms Natalie Marr MP, Member for Thuringowa

Mrs Melissa McMahon MP, Member for Macalister

• Attorney-General, Justice and Integrity
• Police and Emergency Services
• Youth Justice, Victim Support and Corrective Services

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, SMALL BUSINESS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE COMMITTEE

Mr James Lister MP, Member for Southern Downs (Chair)

Mrs Margie Nightingale MP, Member for Inala (Deputy Chair)

Mr Adam Baillie MP, Member for Townsville

Mr Mark Boothman MP, Member for Theodore

Mr Michael Healy MP, Member for Cairns

Ms Joan Pease MP, Member for Lytton

• Local Government, Water, Fire, Disaster Recovery and Volunteers
• Customer Services, Open Data, Small and Family Business

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE

Mr Stephen Bennett MP, Member for Burnett (Chair)

Mr James Martin MP, Member for Stretton (Deputy Chair)

Mr Nigel Dalton MP, Member for Mackay

Mr Robbie Katter MP, Member for Traeger

Mr Glen Kelly MP, Member for Mirani

Mr Tom Smith MP, Member for Bundaberg

• Primary Industries
• Natural Resources and Mines
• Manufacturing and Regional and Rural Development

Ethical considerations

There is a Code of Practice guiding public officials who appear before these Portfolio Committees in Schedule 8 of the Standing Orders. A copy is supplied to IPAA for ease of access.

The Cabinet Handbook includes the following:

9.2.3 Estimates

Parliamentary Portfolio Committees consider the relevant appropriation bills and the estimates for the committee’s area of responsibility. Procedures for estimates are set out in Part 6 of the Standing Orders of the Legislative Assembly.

Ministers, Directors-General and certain Chief Executive Officers must be present at all times in estimates hearings where they are responsible for the relevant area or entity under consideration. The list of entities to which direct questioning of Chief Executive Officers at estimates is to apply is set out in Schedule 7 of the Standing Orders of the Legislative Assembly.

Ministers may also have advisers present to assist.

Lastly, the Public Service Code of Conduct applies generally to public officials during Estimates.[8]

Supporting documents

• Queensland Auditor-General Accounting Standards
• Extract from Queensland Hansard with the Estimates timetable
• Queensland Parliamentary Procedures Handbook
• Schedule 8 of the Queensland Parliament Standing Orders (extract)
• Queensland Parliament Standing Orders (complete document)
• Queensland Public Service Code of Conduct
• USA Committee on Ways and Means: A History 1729–2019

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[1] Source: https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/resource/state-budget-2025-26/.

[2] culminating in the Act of Settlement 1700 that installed William and Mary as joint sovereigns and established succession of the Crown under Parliament.

[3] The US followed suit in its first Congress by creating a Committee of Ways and Means in 1789. Canada adopted Committees of Supply and Ways and Means from confederation in 1867.

[4] See eg Queensland Audit Office (2025)  Auditing Standards: https://shorturl.at/4XojB.

[5]  p136.

[6] Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 s.91D and Standing Order 179.

[7] Profile: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Members/Current-Members/Member-List/Member-Details?id=2006629140.

[8] https://www.forgov.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/182292/code-of-conduct.pdf.