In August The House sat down with Louise Upston (National) and Louisa Wall (Labour) to discuss the mechanics and difficulties of creating and passing members’ bills (those from any MP not in the Executive).
The MPs had very different experiences. Louisa Wall seems to have the golden touch and every bill she writes gets promptly chosen and passed. She’s been involved in three separate bills up this year!
Louise Upston has trod a more difficult path. In 2010, as a newish MP she had a local constituent enter her office with an issue that needed fixing, and she set to work to fix it. “Fools rush in… etc”
National MP Louise Upston speaks in the debate on Conversion Practices Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
The arduous groundwork
The constituent was Graeme Moyle whose brother had been murdered. The problem related to the sentencing of people found not guilty on the basis of insanity.
People judged incapable of standing trial aren’t formally found guilty. They can’t be without a trial. But for a victim hearing a court declare a perpetrator not-guilty on any grounds can feel invalidating and insulting.
There are also flow-on effects for victims of offenders who end up in the Health system and not the Justice one.
So Louise Upston set to work, researching and talking with advocates and after six years of effort was ready to convince her own National Party caucus to agree to a member’s bill on the issue.
But that’s just the beginning - now she had to write it.
The Bill’s progress was further stalled by a stint as a minister (who as a member of the Executive cannot sponsor a member’s bill).
Then in late 2017 (back in opposition), she finally had a chance to get it finished. In 2019, with a few minutes to spare before the draw, she entered it into the periodic member’s bill ballot. It was chosen - first go.
The issues sound like simple things to fix, but turned out to include ornery legal and philosophical problems.
Louise Upston says “Normally, members' bills are pretty straight forward — you know, we're told, as a new beginner, as a new MP, if you want a member's bill, pick something small and tight. This hasn't been one of those.”
National MP Louise Upston in Select Committee Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Presto, lento, presto
After that endless gestation the Rights for Victims of Insane offenders Bill suddenly seemed to be sailing. It achieved unanimous support from parties across the House at both its first and second readings. At that point it prompted an unusual intervention from the Chief Justice, pointing out a problem.
In August when Louise Upston was on The House the Bill was stuck in amber.
After more than a decade of achingly slow progress the Bill had been sent back to the Justice Select Committee for a second look when no-one could agree how to overcome the legal issue.
Louise Upston was less than happy and admitted the backwards step had caused “a bit of damage to the relationship on the way through.” Still she was optimistic.
At that point it might have been easy to abandon the project as too hard but no-one seemed prepared to let it go. Not Louise Upston, not the Select Committee and not the Ministry of Justice.
On Wednesday all that effort finally reached a culmination when the bill was passed after twelve years of effort.
Parliament even changed a bill’s natural tempo, lurching from Lento to Presto and agreeing to debate the two final stages of the bill back-to-back. A committee stage followed immediately by a third reading. That’s pretty unusual, and incredibly so for a member’s bill.
Giving thanks
After such a long gestation, in her final third reading speech Louise Upston had a lot of people to thank.
First up the man who initiated her arduous travail - Graeme Moyle:
“Firstly, to Graeme, for your sheer perseverance. I think you've figured out now that I can also be pretty bloody-minded, and it's a good thing that the pair of us are determined. I want to thank your wider family, in particular Liz, who have supported you in every step of this journey.”
Among others she also thanked the select committee who had considered the bill at length, twice.
Labour MP Ginny Anderson chairing the Justice select committee at Parliament Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
“The Justice Committee, who, on multiple occasions, could have easily said, ‘It's too hard; go home,’ and I'm sure they were tempted to! Thank you for your perseverance. I think this piece of legislation — the omnibus bill of four complex pieces of legislation that are being amended — really is due to the significant work that the select committee members put in. By keeping an open mind, by keeping a focus on the policy intent of the bill, we traversed this very tricky issue, at times pushing the boundaries.
“And special thanks goes to the chair, Ginny Andersen, for diligently and carefully navigating our way through this process to ensure that we kept support for the bill unanimous.”
And she gave thanks to the former Minister of Justice – something quite unusual (keeping in mind that this is an opposition MP’s member’s bill).
“To Andrew Little, who now is the Minister of Health but formerly the Minister of Justice, who agreed quite some time ago that the verdict must be changed and gave officials full remit to work on this bill. Again, that's very unusual, and without the Minister's remit, we wouldn't have been able to do the sorts of work that we needed to, to end up with this bill.”
Labour MP Andrew Little debating in the House Photo: ©VNP / Phil Smith
And in his team she particularly marked out one official. I personally think it’s nice when a portion of the amorphous battalion of public servants pejoratively referred to as ‘faceless bureaucrats’ suddenly coalesces into dedicated individuals.
“To the justice and health officials, and in particular Dr Crawshaw, who worked so well together despite coming up against issues that needed careful consideration and were often in conflict with each other.”
She also thanked Victim Support, a petitioner, the committee staff and the Parliamentary Counsel Office (who actually draft government bills, not members’ bills – Member’s bills get drafting assistance from the Office of the Clerk’s legal team).
“We work for you”
But her overriding message was this:
“Today, I want to give confidence to every New Zealander that this is your House and, as MPs, we work for you. We work to make New Zealand a better place. You can meet with your MP, like Graeme did, and you can change the law.
“To paraphrase another New Zealander, while it might not happen overnight, it can happen. Tonight is proof of that, and I think it's a wonderful way to end this parliamentary year, for the members' day, where victims will have more rights with the unanimous passing of this bill.”
