Today is the beginning of the last three sitting weeks of the 53rd Parliament, a busy few weeks as the Government still has a lot that it wants to finish before the House rises.
This week the Government will take Parliament into urgency, during which a veritable potpourri of legislation will be debated, including Three Waters bills and some climate stuff, interspersed with the first batches of valedictory speeches by departing MPs.
Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
But the first thing on the agenda today, post-Question Time, is the final two or three hours of debate on the Appropriations estimates, which is basically the bill that approves the annual budget.
Some time this evening, a motion to take the House into urgency will be moved. Going into urgency at this point has some implications for select committees, who are also trying to tidy up work before the House rises, the shadow leader of the house, National’s Michael Woodhouse explained.
“Select committees generally can’t meet while the House is sitting. That’s been a long-standing convention, without the leave of the members. Generally opposition parties don’t provide that leave.”
Nonetheless, MPs will be focussed on a big programme of debating work that included the bills to replace the Resource Management Act, and the trio of legislation on Water Services. First up will be the Water Services Entities Amendment Bill which is at its committee stage. Asked whether there would be filibustering on this Bill, Woodhouse underlined how important this stage of the process was.
“We have tried to take what I call a Goldilocks approach to the committee of the whole: not too short, not too long. There’s some really important technical elements of that, and some proposals for changes that parties want to make. They were unsuccessful in select committee, and they’ll be commending them in the committee of the whole. I don’t consider that to be filibustering.
“Indeed, the ministers have actively participated in the examination of the Bill. I think that‘s taken longer than the Leader of the House would have liked, in respect of the RMA reform bills. And that is - I think - driving his decision to take urgency,” Woodhouse said.
Meanwhile, the scheduling of valedictory speeches is arranged along party lines. So today there’s a clump of Labour MPs giving their final statements to the House: Marja Lubeck, Paul Eagle and Jamie Strange. Tomorrow it’s the independent MP Elizabeth Kerekere. Then on Thursday, another two Labour MPs, Stuart Nash and David Clark. Next week it will be the turn of National MPs Jacqui Dean, Ian McKelvie and David Bennett among others.
