The House

Albeit a month late, Speaker Gerry Brownlee sat down this week with the Governance and Administration Committee for a chat about Parliament.

Parliament kicked off a three week sitting block today, and the first legislative business was initial debates and votes on three brand new bills.

Last week, MPs were replaced by their younger counterparts during Youth Parliament 2025, and just like real Parliament, there was plenty of drama.

Before laws are finalised, MPs get a last chance to argue for changes. Pav Sharma—whose office manages them—explains the purpose, rules, and process for the many amendments.

Parliament spent most of the week debating legislation under urgency, finalising eight separate government bills, initiating four others. Despite that effort, the week's most telling events may have been its bookends – the international tragedy that opening it, the very local tragedy at its close.

It was a sad day at Parliament on Thursday, with the news of the sudden death of Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp. Before adjourning, The House paid tribute to her in a number of speeches.

Parliament's focus this week is debating numerous bills under urgency. Across recent parliaments the use of urgency and extra sittings has become so regular as to be almost normal. But it remains important to know what laws are being debated and agreed – at whatever speed.

The first item of business at Parliament this week was not Question Time, but a Ministerial Statement on the Middle East situation.

On the Sunday Edition of the House you can hear an interview with Lawrence Xu-Nan about Scrutiny Week and the preparation necessary. You can also listen to a description of a few of the Q&A tactics observed in the scrutiny hearings.

Scrutiny week is partly information-sharing and partly a partisan bear-pit. When Parliament undertakes governance of governments there are always tactics and politics involved.

Foreign Affairs is a portfolio that Winston Peters often receives bi-partisan congratulations on. In an otherwise adversarial scrutiny week, his hearing with the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee had a bastion of amicability and trust.

This week at Parliament is Estimates Scrutiny week, when Ministers face Select Committees to defend their budget plans. We talk with Green MP, Lawrence Xu-Nan, a star scrutiny performer from last time round. As a former academic and one of a number of MPs with a PhD, Xu-Nan has the brutal research experience that is surely useful for digging into something as labyrinthine and esoteric as a budget.

For electorate M Ps, weekends are generally spent in the community meeting constituents. The House popped into a morning tea Q&A hosted by Matt Doocey.

Parliament and the Courts are different branches of our democracy. On Thursday, during the debate on MP punishments they overlapped.

The Government had three things on its to-do list for the week. It managed... some of them, including the one that allows its own continued survival.