This was Parliament’s third-to-last sitting week before it adjourns and then dissolves for the election. Yes, dissolves, like an aspirin in water, leaving behind three years of scrutiny-over-government and a slew of new or amended legislation.
But with days to go, it is not done yet. Parliament is still going like the clappers. The reason being, the Government still has a long list of legislation that isn’t quite finished yet.
The Clerk of the House of Representatives David Wilson, and his senior staff wait, bewigged, on the front steps of Parliament to witness the formal dissolution of Parliament in 2017. Behind them are senior chamber attendants. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Almost all of this week’s sitting was spent under urgency to try to get through the remaining agenda. And it’s not just rats-and-mice. It includes major pieces of reform like the multi-bill rejigs of water governance and resource management. Those are huge (literally and figuratively).
Making completion more difficult is the fact that the last few weeks of any Parliament start to fill up with added extras, like approving the rule changes for the next Parliament, or finalising approval of the budget (which is typically signed-off about now), or the valedictory speeches of MPs that are choosing to retire.
There are seventeen MPs retiring this year. Or at least seventeen retiring on purpose. Their farewells are scattered across this week and next, but added up, they will take most of a day’s debating time (you can see a schedule of them all below).
Even employing urgency to gain extra hours the to-do lists are large and ambitious. (Urgency has meant the House spent extra time debating to try and get them completed, and dropped the normal one day pause between the debate stages for each bill. None of this week's bills missed a Select Committee inquiry).
After a three year term of Parliament, you might ask why there are still major bills uncompleted. If you do, you are likely to be told this is not that unusual. The problem is that drafting complex legislation is not a fast process. And the drafting is the quick bit, coming after years of policy development. Basically making law is a long game.
And that takes us back to the valedictories. ‘So many bills, so little time’ is surely a reason that a common theme most terms and from most parties is this one, as expressed this week by outgoing MP Jaime Strange in his valedictory.
“I believe we need a four-year term in Parliament to allow Governments time to fully implement the policies that they went to the electorate on. I acknowledge we don't have an upper house and there'll be questions around not having enough checks and balances for four years, but I believe that we are mature enough as a country to take on the four-year term. We have a stable democratic system that I believe could handle that.”
A schedule of MP valedictory speeches
The current schedule for valedictory statements for the end of the 53rd Parliament is as follows:
Tuesday, 15 August 2023
5.00pm Marja Lubeck
5.15pm Jamie Strange
5.30pm Paul Eagle
Wednesday, 16 August 2023
5.45pm Dr Elizabeth Kerekere
Thursday, 17 August 2023
5.30pm Hon Stuart Nash
5.45pm Hon Dr David Clark
Tuesday, 22 August 2023
5.30pm Dr Emily Henderson
5.45pm Hon Aupito William Sio
Wednesday, 23 August 2023
4.15pm Damien Smith
4.30pm Dr James McDowall
5.00pm Todd Muller
5.15pm Ian McKelvie
5.30pm Hon David Bennett
5.45pm Hon Jacqui Dean
Thursday, 24 August 2023
5.15pm Jan Logie
5.30pm Hon Eugenie Sage
5.45pm Hon Poto Williams
