It’s law-making at a fast clip
Just what’s got our MPs staying in the House late into the night, as Parliament operates under urgency? Thomas Manch investigates.
There’s a sense of urgency in Parliament these days. Your local MP is up late, arguing over littleheard-of laws in the House, dining at the ritzy Beehive restaurant between evening sessions.
There have been muck-ups, and spats. The most memorable involved National MP Nick Smith, who near midnight last Thursday claimed a ‘‘Nazi establishment’’ was running the place after repeatedly clashing with a Speaker’s order not to return to his seat.
The true power driving this law-making engine is more familiar. A Labour-led coalition Government knows there are 80 days until the election, and there’s work to be done.
The House, Parliament’s debating chamber, has been sitting under urgency. Beginning last Tuesday, afternoon sessions have been replaced by 9am starts, MPs have been required in the House beyond dinner time, and, unusually, on Fridays.
Ten laws have been passed so far. Another 12 or so may be cleared by the election. There are three more sitting weeks before the September election, and there will more late nights and urgent law-making.
Leader of the House, Labour’s Chris Hipkins, says the Government isn’t rushing legislation, but catching up on lost time after the coronavirus lockdown.
‘‘We’re doing one more big urgency session like the one we did last week, and that’ll be in the first week back after the school holidays.
‘‘We lost about 60 hours of sitting time during that lockdown. So, given the time constraint between when the lockdown ended and the election, we’d never be able to make up that time without the use of urgency.’’
It’s law-making at pace. But unless you have a penchant for reading political party press releases, these new laws may have passed without notice. Here’s what your representatives have voted for, or against.
LAWS PASSED Racing Industry Bill
First across the line last week was Winston Peters’ reform of the racing industry. The bill raced through its second reading – or debate – when the House opened on Tuesday, had a third reading a day later, and became law this week.
The NZ First leader has long been known for having an affinity for the racing industry, and in his speech to the House last week he said the industry had been ‘‘underperforming’’ for years. There were more than 900 written submissions on the bill.
‘‘We need to fix it up right now, this week. To accept the status quo and to do nothing would only lead to a notable decline.
This bill will turn the industry around and get racing back on track,’’ Peters said.
National supported the bill. The party’s racing spokesman, Ian McKelvie, said: ‘‘I hope the passing of this bill will put the once great racing industry back on its feet.’’
Public Finance (Wellbeing) Amendment Bill
‘‘Wellbeing’’ might be this Government’s favourite word. There was the 2019 Wellbeing Budget, the 2020 Wellbeing Budget (subtitle: Rebuilding Together), and, last week, Finance Minister Grant Robertson got his wellbeing amendment bill through the House.
The bill entrenched the concept of ‘‘wellbeing’’ within government; future Budgets will all be wellbeing ones, as the government and Treasury will be required under law to report on ‘‘the state of wellbeing in New Zealand’’.
At the third reading, Robertson said: ‘‘It’s what New Zealanders want. They don’t see success as just being in a financial balance sheet sense.’’
National’s social development spokeswoman, Louise Upston, said the Government was ‘‘merely’’ placing the word ‘‘wellbeing’’ before its reports. The Opposition parties voted against the bill.
‘‘It’s just really unfortunate that we’re debating a piece of legislation in the House in urgency that, quite frankly, might make zero difference to New Zealanders,’’ Upston said.
Appropriation and Imprest Supply Bills
If there was a horse-race for the most procedural bill, it would be neck-and-neck between these two. The appropriation and imprest supply bills essentially formalise how the Government intends to spend money, as set out in the yearly Budget.
The battle lines that could be expected played out in the House. Labour and Green MPs celebrated the $40 billion earmarked for spending, which is intended to ward off the worst of a Covid recession. National MPs condemned them for – as Chris Penk put it – spending ‘‘like drunken sailors on shore leave’’.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill
Wellbeing made a second appearance in the House last week, within Health Minister David Clark’s bill to set up a Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.
The bill was supported by both sides of the House, and passed into law on Tuesday. The commission will be established in February 2021.
Privacy Bill
Justice Minister Andrew Little’s Privacy Bill replaces the former Privacy Act, providing the privacy commissioner with more powers and hauling the law into the internet age. Much has changed since 1993, when the original law was written.
National supported the bill and claimed it as its own, with MP Mark Mitchell saying former justice minister Amy Adams did all the work. Little, in an earlier speech, acknowledged work on the bill first began in 2012.
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill
Nearly a decade after the Christchurch earthquakes, Parliament continues to deal with the aftermath.
This bill winds down some central Government powers over the region, and closes Regenerate Christchurch, a Crown-city council entity that was created to help rebuild the city.
Minister for Christchurch Regeneration Megan Woods said previous ministers had travelled a ‘‘long road’’ after the quakes and there was plenty more to do.
Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill
This one got messy. Late last Wednesday night, the colloquially named ‘‘prisoner voting bill’’ entered the Committee of the whole House stage, meaning MPs had to vote on changes to the bill before it progressed further.
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman sought a change to the bill that would grant all prisoners the right to vote, not just those serving fewer than three years in prison. National MPs voted this amendment down, but supported another of the Greens’ amendments which removed the Electoral Commission’s power to strike disqualified voters – in this case prisoners – off the electoral roll.
This meant the Electoral Commission would not be able to strike prisoners off the roll, but prisoners would not be allowed to vote – creating a bad law.
Justice Minister Andrew
Little said it was ‘‘mindless politics’’. A second amendment bill fixing the problems was passed late on Tuesday, and was supported by the Greens.
Resource Management Amendment Bill
Often spoken about and rarely understood, the Resource Management Act (RMA) is a controversial law which sets out how the environment should be managed by a government and councils when making decisions about anything from who can build where, to how much pollution can be in the air.
Environment Minister David Parker said, while the Government was looking at a broader review of the RMA, this amendment bill would bring about a new freshwater planning process that was urgently needed.
‘‘Red tape’’, National MP Hamish Walker said twice in his speech. There would be more of it, he claimed.
Land Transport (Rail) Legislation Bill
Similarly niche was this rail bill from Transport Minister Phil Twyford, which promises to fold the rail network into the same land transport funding regime that the New Zealand Transport Agency uses to upgrade roads.
Rail is one of the targets of Labour’s ‘‘nine years of neglect’’ attack line, an accusation thrown at National for a claimed failure to fund certain sectors during its last term in government. Twyford, at the bill’s third reading, said the bill would help the ‘‘restoration of rail’’.
National MPs coughed at the suggestion, voting against the bill. MP Brett Hudson said it was ‘‘a bit of smoke and mirrors’’.
‘‘Actually the heart of this, the nub of this, is the little land transport cookie jar that they can raid when they feel a need to fund rail,’’ he said.
LAWS TO COME (probably) Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill
Being debated yesterday was a forestry bill which Forestry Minister and NZ First MP Shane Jones described as ‘‘largely a regime to create an occupation licensing system’’ within the sector. Forestry advisers and timber traders would have to be registered, and it would push logs to local processors instead of allowing them to be exported raw.
‘‘Log mongers have, in many cases, not represented with much integrity, quite frankly, the best interests of the forest sector,’’ Jones said.
Everything about this bill has been fast. It was introduced to the House in May, and select committee consultation ended a month later. There was much opposition to the bill, and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research has said it would reduce GDP and may conflict with trade agreements.
National vigorously opposes the bill. ‘‘We are highly suspicious as to why this legislation is before the House,’’ MP David Carter said.
He said the bill would benefit a small number of sawmills in Northland, where Jones is based.
Equal Pay Amendment Bill
Nearly two years after the Government introduced its pay equity bill, on the 125th anniversary of the suffrage movement, Hipkins is confident it will get across the line before the election.
The bill says women should be paid the same as men for jobs of equal value, and sets out a process for employees to make a pay equity claim.
It has been contentious. This bill had resembled one written by the prior National government, and the Opposition says Labour canned its bill after the 2017 election only for it to be resurrected as a PR exercise in 2018.
A select committee had reported on the bill in May 2019, and it had languished in the halls of Parliament for more than a year.
‘‘Now we’ve lost two years and now we’ve got further changes to this law that are being proposed,’’ National workplace relations spokesman Dan Bidois said. The party will support the bill.
The Greens rubbished the claims from National. MP Julie Anne Genter, who is also minister for women, said the legislation would pass but there would be further changes to it before this – hence the delay.
‘‘It’s more important that it is right. It has not been a barrier to us making enormous progress for women and on pay equity claims during the time that this process has occurred,’’ she said.
Other bills also likely to pass before the election include the Education and Training Bill, capturing the Government’s education reforms, and the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Amendment Bill, which will make the livestreaming of objectionable content illegal.
Also likely to pass are the NZ Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill, Rates Rebate (Statutory Declarations) Amendment Bill, Public Service Legislation Bill and Taumata Arowai – the Water Services Regulator Bill.