The End of Life Choice bill returns to the House this week almost a year and a half after its first reading.
That won't happen till later on Wednesday though as there is other Government business to work through first.
In charge of ordering which items of Government business will be worked through is the Leader of the House Chris Hipkins.
Leader of the House Chris Hipkins Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
He said the second reading of the Budget Bill (officially the Appropriation 2019/20 Estimates Bill) will be finished off on Tuesday.
"This is basically the Budget Debate that we started on Budget day back in May so that takes a wee while to work through the House because we haven't been doing it all day every day, we've been doing other Government business as well," he said.
The Budget Debate can last up to 15 hours in the House and is spread out over a few weeks. General debates and debates on members' bills don't happen until it's finished.
Estimates hearings at select committees are also underway which is the part of the Budget where Ministers are questioned on funding for their portfolios. Once those reports come back from select committee the next stage of the Bill will take place but the bill won't be passed for some months and in the meantime the Government needs money.
"The financial year this year will end before the new financial year's budget has been approved by the Parliament but under law of course the Government can't spend any money without the authorisation of Parliament to do so, " said Hipkins.
This is a usual part of the Budget and to fix it, an 'imprest supply bill' will be taken at the same time as a bill which confirms spending from last year's budget.
"That's the bill which basically gives the Government money to operate until such time as the Budget has been passed" he said.
It sounds a bit tangled but it all "works out in the wash" said Hipkins.
"There's a lot of history of how we've got to this particular budget process. It's a little bit less high stakes than it might have been all those years ago when there were all those surprises on budget day which there don't tend to be quite so much of now."
The last of the Budget Debate will be finished on Tuesday meaning Wednesday can be used to debate members' bills.
A member's bill is one that comes from an MP that isn't a Minister. These bills are assigned a number which is submitted into a ballot and depend on a bit of luck to be drawn and added to the order paper.
This week the End of Life Choice Bill will have its second reading debate but only after two other bills go first. The Leader of the House doesn't control the order in which members' bills are debated.
Instead, a member's bill that is furthest along on its journey to become law goes first. So for example, a bill at it's third reading will be up debated before a bill at its second reading.
Given the interest the End of Life Choice Bill debate will have more speeches than normal and as its a conscience issue the party lines soften.
"There won't be an allocation of speeches by party, basically any member who wants to speak will have to go down to Parliament and seek the call from the speaker," said Hipkins.
"The Speaker is looking for people who are in favour of the bill or opposed to the bill regardless of which parties they might come from," he said.
"Which is different to a normal debate where you're trying to get a balance of party perspectives, in this case you're trying to get a balance of conscience perspectives."
Parliament can be watched live online here.
