In Chris Hipkins’ office there are a range of staff to help him carry out his various roles.
Ministers need experts and liaisons for each of their portfolios and Chris Hipkins is Minister of Education, Minister of State Services and also the Leader of the House. (For an example of how this all works, join us on a tour of David Parker’s office.)
Ministers also have political staff who are not borrowed from a Ministry and so are allowed to get more ‘amongst it’. These people include communications experts and tactical advisors.
One of these is Peter Hoare, a genial chap who I’m told is a secret weapon on any quiz team. He towers over me (not difficult) but with a helpful twinkle. I suspect he probably doesn’t mind being described as a pedant, but of the benevolent sort who are incredibly handy if you need something important done well.
Peter Hoare, the man behind Parliament's order paper. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
His job is to wrestle Parliament’s agenda (the Order Paper) into submission to assist Chris Hipkins in his role as Leader of the House - the person responsible for organising the government’s plan in the House.
Getting laws through Parliament isn’t a simple task. Timetabling their passage even harder. So Peter Hoare’s task is not an enviable one. Consider the following facts and complications:
There are usually 30 or so three-day sitting weeks in the year to get things done. However, chunks of each year are taken up with very long set-pieces like the various Budget debates and the debate on the Prime Minister’s Statement. So scrub a chunk of your available time.
Following the usual path and moving quickly, passing each bill takes at least six months from introduction to royal assent. The debates on a bill will take about half a week of the available debating time in the House. If the opposition filibuster that can double.
Bills often stay longer in Select Committees than expected. You can’t rely on a bill being available at a set time, it might disappear for months to be rethought.
Keep in mind that there are often deadlines around when bills have to pass, sometimes with dire consequences if they’re missed.
Consider that bills are sometimes substantially rewritten as they progress, and in a coalition every substantive change will require multiple sign-offs and will go through cabinet and or cabinet committees.
The Sitting Calendar for 2018. MPs also have to spend time in their electorates and in Select Committee so you don't have a lot of House time to play with. Photo: Parliament
The rules say you can’t move two stages of the same bill on the same day (except under urgency). So the House stages (introduction, first reading, second reading, committee stage, third reading) have to take place across at least five separate days (not counting the months in Select Committee). That means that if today’s second reading debate isn’t quite finished by home time you can’t start the committee stage tomorrow.
Plan for the unexpected. Sometimes the real world will upstage your plans and make next week’s plan politically inappropriate. Or someone will realise that an error in a law needs fixing urgently and everything else must wait (yes, that does happen).
Now consider that you have to take into account the availability of key players for each bill. You really don’t want to schedule a debate on a minister’s marquee legislation while that MP is overseas.
And finally, just when you think you can make it work; keep in mind that moreˀ than half the legislation that needs to be passed isn’t even the stuff that your government promised to do and really cares about, but is only ‘the machinery of government’. (By the way - these ‘boring but important’ updates to laws are the reason that a new government is able to pick up and continue so much of the incomplete legislation of a previous government.)
So, considering all of the above (and much more besides) plan a workable debating timetable. And remember to give everyone enough notice to prepare. Oh, and if you screw up, your mistake might be publicly highlighted and mocked by the opposition.
See, it’s like juggling Rubik’s Cubes, while they’re on fire. Incredibly Peter Hoare seems to revel in it. Possibly he has asbestos hands.
To listen to Peter describe his work click on the link near the top.
