11 Sep 2018

Parliament's to do list: charter schools, America's cup and family violence

From The House , 6:55 pm on 11 September 2018

Each sitting day in the House MPs work through business set out on the order paper, a work list devised by The Leader of the House, Chris Hipkins.

Chris Hipkins 9 august 2018

Leader of the House Chris Hipkins Photo: VNP / Phil Smith

Mr Hipkins' job is organising which legislation MPs debate and when. He’s the conductor of the orchestra, trying to get the woodwinds to play in time and make for a smooth legislative flow.

This week he's mucking with the space-time continuum by having it remain Tuesday inside the debating chamber while it becomes Wednesday everywhere else (otherwise known as an extended sitting on Wednesday morning).

Below is what he wants them to do this week.

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Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox

MPs are required to be at Parliament for scheduled sitting days, so called because MPs sit in those green leather chairs when they’re in the debating chamber. An agenda known as the Order Paper is published online each sitting day outlining what business the House plans to get through. But plans change and time is limited so below is what they’ll try their best to get through.

Note: The Government always plans for more work than can probably be achieved. This is because while the opposition sometimes makes debates last as long as possible (especially during the Committee Stage), they can also speed things up unexpectedly by having little to say in debate; and no Government wants to be caught short with nothing else ready to debate.

Road closure for America’s Cup (Tuesday)

What:

  • Apparently all the parties are good with this law, so they’ve agreed to speed it up by skipping the committee stage and not debating the third stage. So it will hop, skip and jump through its remaining stages in the House on Tuesday.

Why:

  • It will allow a piece of public road in Auckland to be closed where the America’s cup village is going to be constructed. The law has to be passed in order to get the village built in time

Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill (Tuesday)

What:

  • The second reading of the Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill brings the proposed law back to the House for further debate after a few months of public submissions in Select Committee.

  • The bill is omnibus bill (meaning it affects multiple existing laws) - and will amend the Domestic Violence Act 1995, (including changing its name to the Family and Whānau Violence Act 1995), the Bail Act 2000, the Care of Children Act 2004, the Crimes Act 1961, the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, the Evidence Act 2006, and the Sentencing Act 2002.

  • The legislation is significant and complicated but boiled it 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.

Why:

  • Family violence is a kiwi scourge. This bill aims at reducing it in various ways.

  • This law was originally introduced in early 2017 under the national-led government. It returns to the House with many suggested amendments, some of which presumably reflect shifts in approach under the new administration.

Teacher’s to choose their own masters (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

What:

  • Committee stage and third reading if there’s time.

  • Like many professions, teachers have a professional body called the Education Council. The Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill began life as a Members Bill (from now Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins). The Bill increases its size and includes on it teachers selected by teachers. The government-appointees would be a minority of the council. This week should see the committee stage (where the house debates and can suggest changes to details). When it came back from committee the opposition members of the Select Committee included a minority report opposing the Bill as expensive and unnecessary.

Why:

  • The basic argument is to allow teachers to choose from amongst themselves for their professional leadership. Teachers elected to be on the council would need to have current practicing certificates.

Education Change-ups (Tuesday, Wednesday)

What:

  • The second reading and committee stage

  • The Education Amendment Bill undoes a few changes to education brought in under the the previous government. Amongst them it re-integrates ‘charter’ or ‘partnership’ schools back into the state system; and it ends the National Standards model.

  • The above changes will cause the most noise, but it also reintroduces staff and student representation on the councils of tertiary education institutions.

A Check on the Bosses (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

What:

  • The State Sector and Crown Entities Reform Bill is back from Select Committee with a few proposed amendments.

  • The Bill seeks to provide more oversight and control over the appointment of the leadership of the government’s departments, companies and agencies (state entities).

Why:

  • There has been some chief executives appointed in recent years with contracts and salaries that drew criticism.

An Up for the Tiddlers (Tuesday)

What:

Why:   

  • The bill will amend the Conservation Act and Freshwater Fisheries Regulations to help protect fish including renaming indigenous fish to indigenous freshwater fish (so they’re not confused with indigenous saltwater fish) and allowing land to be specified as a spawning ground (at present only water can be deemed a spawning ground).

  • This bill plans to enable similar protections to what are possible for less wet critters, but without impacting on customary fishing rights.

Building Bill (Tuesday)

What:

  • The first reading of the Building Amendment Bill

  • The Bill proposes two new sets of powers for the government manage buildings after a disaster, and to investigate buildings that ‘fail’.

Why:

  • The Christchurch and Kaikoura Earthquakes highlighted gaps in government’s powers to deal with the aftermath of when the earth goes bang. This bill seeks to remedy that, including: giving the government more power to investigate buildings that ‘fail’ (like the CTV building in Christchurch for example); to inspect, notify, evacuate, demolish, etc. The powers have time limits.

General Debate (every Wednesday after question time, about 3pm)

What:

  • Twelve speeches of up to five minutes in length after question time on Wednesdays in the House. Speeches are divvied up proportionally so bigger parties get more speeches. Because Ministers aren’t counted in the proportional divvy-up, the opposition side of the House gets more speeches than the government side.

Why:

  • The general debate is a chance for MPs to bring up issues that would otherwise not come up before the House, making it a wide-ranging debate. Sometimes parties take a coordinated approach and speak on the same issue but there’s no rule that they have to.

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