How to be urgent at Parliament

The House is sitting under urgency to consider bills that deliver the Government's Budget priorities.

Budget 2019 was announced on Thursday and some of the announcements require "a rapid legislative process," said Deputy Leader of the House Iain Lees-Galloway.

Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox

There is a calendar with days marked for MPs to be in the House. These are called sitting days.

The off-weeks are for MPs to head back to their constituents or do other related work like inter-parliamentary trips.

Usually the House sits on a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but last night the government moved for it to sit under urgency meaning it could spill into Friday and also Saturday if needed.

To do so requires a formal request from the Government which goes like this:

I move, That urgency be accorded the introduction and passing through all stages of the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Budget Measures—Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill...

Every bill the government wants to consider under urgency has to be announced before urgency comes into effect. There’s no chance to add something later so all the bills were listed.

• the introduction and passing through all stages of:
  • the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Budget Measures – Motor Spirits) Amendment Bill
  • the Social Assistance Legislation (Budget 2019 Welfare Package) Amendment Bill
  • the Immigration (International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy) Amendment Bill
  • the New Zealand Business Number Funding (Validation and Authorisation) Bill; and
  • the District Courts (District Courts Judges) Amendment Bill
• the introduction, first reading, and referral to a select committee of the Education (School Donations) Amendment Bill
• the first reading and referral to a select committee of
  • the Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities Bill; and
  • the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Waikato DHB) Elections Bill.

There also needs to be an explanation as to why a bill must be passed more quickly than usual.

Deputy Leader of the House Iain Lees-Galloway gave an explanation for why each bill needs to be considered under urgency.

For the Excise Bill he said "the immediate enactment of the bill will enable businesses and other vehicle users to plan in advance of the changes."

On the District Courts Bill he said "passing the bill under urgency will allow those judges to be in place and deal with a backlog of cases as soon as possible".

Usually only one stage of a bill can be passed per sitting day. If a bill is introduced there are meant to be a couple of days before it has its first reading so people have time to read it.

But urgency allows the House to go through all of its stages straight after each other and Parliament can sit extra days and hours to achieve that.

It also means the select committee process can be skipped which is the case for some of these bills but not all.

All the MPs vote on whether or not urgency will be agreed to. The Government parties have more votes in the House so urgency was accorded.

MPs then began work on the Excise Bill in the name of the Transport Minister Phil Twyford.

Naturally the Opposition is opposed to the budget desires of the Government which National MP Brett Hudson makes clear.
Urgency allows the House to sit until midnight on Friday and Saturday if they need to.