Tuesday at Parliament: Oil and gas permits and family violence

On sitting days MPs are required to be at Parliament to work on legislation either in the debating chamber or in select committees.

Today they’ll be in the chamber from 2pm for question time and start working on legislation from about 3pm beginning with a controversial bill on permits for oil and gas exploration.

To make sure they get it all done, they’ll extend today’s sitting into tomorrow morning starting their day in the chamber at 9am.

More on extended sittings here.

The Order Paper determines what MPs will work on but it’s subject to change so below is an outline of what they’ll try to work through.

Question Time - 2pm

Twelve oral questions to Ministers from either Opposition MPs or government backbenchers.

Opposition MPs use question time to try and expose the Government’s failings or to advocate for an issue on behalf of their constituents.

Backbench MPs from a Government Party often ask “patsy”, or soft, questions to a Minister so the Minister can boast about stuff they’ve done, usually to do with a recent policy announcement.  

Supplementary/follow-up questions are allocated to parties but ultimately allowed at the discretion of the Speaker.  

Oil and gas permits - 3pm-ish

What:

• The Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Bill will start its committee stage

• On 12 April this year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that no further offshore petroleum exploration permits will be granted. The bill will stop the granting of new offshore petroleum permits and limit new onshore petroleum permits to Taranaki. The Bill shouldn’t affect existing petroleum permits and rights to subsequent permits, under the principal Act

• The committee stage can be the longest part of a bill’s time in the House as each part or clause is debated. MPs can also speak multiple times (as long as they follow the rules) so on large, controversial bills this can take a few days and delay the passing of other legislation.

Who:

• The Minister of Energy and Resources Megan Woods is in charge of this bill.

Why:

• Minister Woods has said the Bill is about “taking political leadership to act on climate change and its flow-on impacts. The decision was a political decision, looking out 30 years and taking steps towards 2050 being emission neutral.”

• In the select committee report on the Bill, the National Party said it opposes this policy and would “reverse the Government’s decision to ban new offshore exploration as we believe it is poorly planned, will not achieve emission reductions, but potentially increase them.”

Tropical Super

What:

• The third reading of the Social Assistance (Residency Qualification) Legislation Bill

• This bill changes residency qualifications for New Zealand superannuation and the veteran’s pension to be met with residence in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, or Tokelau.

Who:

• The Minister in charge is Carmel Sepuloni.

When:

• Once the committee stage of the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Bill is done so it might not be started till Wednesday morning.

Why:

• Superannuation, often shortened to Super, is a government pension paid to New Zealanders over the age of 65. To qualify, you have to be a legal resident, have lived in New Zealand for ten years since the age of 20 and five-years since the age of 50.

• New Zealand has close constitutional relationships with the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau (people born there are New Zealand citizens). The Bill will mean that the five-years over 50 residence requirement no longer has to be met by living in New Zealand but can be spent in the Cook Islands, Niue, or Tokelau.

Reducing family violence

What:

• Finishing off the third reading of bills divided from the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill: the Family Violence Bill and the Family Violence (Amendments) Bill.

• The legislation aims to reduce family violence by (a) recognising that family violence, in all its forms, is unacceptable; and (b) stopping and preventing perpetrators from inflicting family violence; and (c) keeping victims, including children, safe from family violence.

• This law was originally introduced in early 2017 under the National-led government.

Who:

• The bills are in the name of Minister of Justice Andrew Little.

Regulating fibre services

What:

• Third reading of the Telecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Bill

• The bill was brought to Parliament under the previous government and picked up by the current one.

• It introduces a new outline for the regulation of fibre fixed-line services from 2020, while retaining copper fixed-line regulations where no fibre alternatives are available.

• It also extends consumer safeguards, streamlines response to competition problems, especially in the cellular market, and provides more oversight of retail service quality.

Who:

• This Bill is in the name of Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi.

You can see how much the House gets done each sitting day by going here: Daily progress in the House