Parliament has begun a new three week sitting block and has a long list of work to get through before Parliament dissolves for the general election in six weeks.
In charge of deciding when particular bills will be worked on is the Leader of the House, Chris Hipkins who says the list is extensive.
Labour MP and Leader of the House Chris Hipkins Photo: © VNP / Phil Smith
Finishing the Budget Debate
The most familiar part of this debate is the Minister of Finance’s big budget statement which was delivered on May 14.
Public and media attention tends to wane after the Finance Minister and other Party Leaders have given their speeches meaning most people don’t realise the whole debate lasts closer to 13 hours.
It’s done in stages over a few days and this week there’s just one hour remaining for MPs to speak generally about the Government’s proposed spending plan.
“This week we will finish the Budget Debate which is the first substantive part of the budget process,” said Mr Hipkins.
“There are a couple further stages of the Budget process to go through and they will happen typically quite close to the end of Parliament’s sitting programme before the election.”
There are still 14 hours of debate to go on the debate before the election - an 11 hour committee stage and a three hour third reading. That takes up a decent portion of the normal time left in the House.
Bills bills bills
Mr Hipkins said there are a number of bills that the Government wants to put through their first reading debates so they can be sent to a select committee.
A first reading debate allows the MP in charge to explain the bill and make an argument for why it should be passed. Other MPs can indicate their initial support or opposition.
“If we can get first reading bills off to select committees then they can open submissions and that can be taking place while Parliament is not actively sitting,” he said.
Select committees are smaller groups of MPs who focus on subject areas like finance or health. One of their jobs is to look more closely at legislation and hear from the public, officials, and experts who might have suggestions to improve it.
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Bills that are open for submissions can be found here
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A full list of bills before Parliament can be found here
Working early, working long
The usual sitting hours for MPs is 2pm-10pm Tuesday and Wednesday and 2pm-6pm on Thursday for scheduled sitting days which can be found here.
There are a couple of tools the Government has to extend the time MPs are in the chamber.
“The Parliament can extend its sitting hours,” said Mr Hipkins. “That allows the Government to push one day’s sitting into the following morning.”
This means MPs would finish at the usual time of 10pm (on Tues or Weds) but would come back to the debating chamber at 9am the following day.
The other option the Government has is to move urgency.
“That gives us much more scope to extend the sitting hours of Parliament,” said Mr Hipkins.
“Typically once urgency has been moved, the breaks shorten down a bit so you get a one hour lunch break, and you get a one hour dinner break and other than that you basically sit from 9am to midnight and that gives us a lot of additional hours particularly if you run urgency over several days.”
What’s top of the to-do list?
The Resource Management (Fast-Track Consenting) Bill in the name of Minister of the Environment David Parker is at the top of the list, said Mr Hipkins.
“This is really important. It’s part of getting some of the key projects up and running that we want to as part of our economic stimulus programme.
Mr Hipkins said they’re also aiming to finish the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Reform) Amendment Bill which is due to have its third and final reading.
The committee stage of the Arms Legislation Bill is also high on the list.
This stage of a bill’s journey to law is one of the longer ones in the House, as MPs work on any final changes to the bill and make sure it has all the parts it needs to do what it promises.
“There’ll be plenty of debate on that no doubt,” said Mr Hipkins. “Also hoping to make progress on the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill.”
“The electoral commission would need to have it passed by the end of the month if they’re going to have that enacted for voting in this year’s election.”
The Government is also planning to progress the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill through its second reading.
“This is a bill that hopes to return Christchurch back to a state of normality after the Christchurch earthquakes. A lot of power was taken away from Christchurch during that time and this bill really completes the process of handing back Christchurch to its local Government and its local residents.’
Non-Government bills
Every alternate sitting Wednesday at Parliament is normally put aside for debate on bills from MPs who are not Ministers.
It’s called a Member’s Day and one of the few times it isn’t held is while a Budget Debate takes place.
But with the Budget Debate set to wrap up on Tuesday, keen Parliament viewers can expect to see bills on laser pointers, shark cage diving, and the ‘coward’s punch’ from about 4pm on Wednesday.
