It is set to be a feisty week in Parliament. The coming election adds extra vim to issues that are already contentious. Up for debate this week are abortion reform, election rules, film workers rights, and whether to keep the government.
Labour MP and Leader of the House Chris Hipkins Photo: © VNP / Phil Smith
To be or not to be
Parliament will spend about eight hours this week critiquing the Government’s performance and considering whether it should remain in charge for the year.
That’s a very long time to sit through an overtly aggressive performance review. I bet your workplace seems a gentler, kinder place by comparison.
All governments endure such reviews several times a year. And no government can endure if Parliament decides it’s no longer worthy. Parliament will finally vote on Thursday after a total of 13 hours of consideration, but there’s scant suspense about the likely result.
There have been both pro-abortion and anti-abortion protests at Parliament this term. This image is from a pro-abortion protest referencing Margaret Atwoods' The Handmaids Tale. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Abortion
The Abortion Legislation Bill returns to the House on Tuesday from a specially created Select Committee which has been considering feedback on the bill since last August. This second reading debate is over whether the House should adopt that committee’s recommendations.
(note: The thumbnail picture for this article is of Green MP Jan Logie listening to evidence in the Abortion Legislation Select Committee).
The committee recommends some adjustments to the legislation but no wholesale changes. Proposed changes would provide clearer rules around conscientious objection, offer guidelines for doctors in considering the appropriateness of post-20 week abortions, make safe areas around service providers more enforceable, and attempt to ensure that distance isn’t a barrier to services.
The Speaker has declared this Bill a conscience issue, which will both how debates are managed and how voting is undertaken.
The Minister of Justice, Andrew Little is in charge of election legislation. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Election Rules
The rules for how elections are run often get tweaked between national votes (there’s even an inquiry after each one to raise issues). This time though the tinkering has been made more testy by a slow and combative select committee inquiry into the previous vote.
The proposed rules for the 2020 election are set to get Parliament’s approval on Tuesday, after a single remaining speech (from the Minister of Justice) and a vote. It should take about 10 minutes.
The main changes are: voting places will be allowed to include sports clubs and supermarkets. Voters will be able to enrol and vote on the same day (which they can currently do for early voting but not on election day).
Film Workers
Previous governments relaxed labour laws for film production, this new legislation seeks to tighten them up again a little. A lot of film work is very project based, and the determination of who is a contractor and who an employee has been contentious.
This bill tries to delineate it more clearly and provide collection bargaining rights to contractors.
