Parliament's first member's day for the year has resulted in the passing of a bill to fund disabled election candidates and the failure of a bill calling for more detailed broadcast data.
Green MP Chloe Swarbrick in the debating chamber Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
The Election Access Fund Bill in the name of Green MP Chloe Swarbrick passed its third and final reading in the House this week.
It will set up a fund to help cover disability related costs of standing in an election but the journey to get here was started back in 2017 by former Green MP Mojo Mathers.
Mathers requested the drafting of this bill before in the last few weeks of 2017's general election campaign but she didn't make it back in to Parliament and so current MP Swarbrick put forward the bill herself.
Swarbrick, like the majority of MPs, is not a Minister and for her bill to be considered she had to put it into a Members' ballot to be drawn at random.
Proposed Members' Bills are assigned a number and drawn at random from this biscuit tin. Photo: Supplied / Office of the Clerk
Member's days are scheduled for every second Wednesday that the House sits which slows down the speed with which a member's bill can be passed. For example Swarbrick's bill was first debated in May 2018 - almost two years ago.
Former broadcaster and National MP Melissa Lee also had a member's bill up for debate this week and used part of her speaking time to remind the House about the member's bill process.
"Often members' bills are put in to the ballot many years before it actually has the first reading," she said.
This bill was put in the ballot well before Mr McAnulty's* presence in this parliament, and it was luckily drawn and we had our first reading last year."
*Labour MP Kieran McAnulty entered the 52nd Parliament in 2017 and was interjecting during Lee's speech.
National MP Melissa Lee's bill failed to gain enough support to pass its first reading Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Lee's bill asked New Zealand on Air and Te Māngai Pāho publish quarterly reports that show the viewership figures of every project they fund - it did not receive enough support in the House to pass its first reading.
The last member's bill tackled this week was National MP Hamish Walker's bill increasing the penalty for the use and possession of high power lasers.
"Over the past few months, I've been speaking to many pilots. They are telling me that trying to land a plane while you have a laser in your eyes is not only incredibly dangerous it causes temporary headaches and blindness, causing hundreds of passengers' lives to be at risk, putting themselves, their crew, and every passenger sitting behind them at risk," he said.
National MP Hamish Walker Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
The first reading debate on Hamish Walker’s was interrupted but MPs from Labour, NZ First and The Green Party have indicated they will not support it to the next stages.
Labour MP Greg O'Connor said doubling the sentence from three months to six months and the fine from $2000 to $4000 isn't enough.
"What we do have to do is actually ensure that these people who have nothing better to do that actually go and actually use these high-powered lasers against aircraft, against pilots, that they actually believe they're going to get caught," he said.
"That's actually where we could be focusing our areas, ensuring that we get better powers to ensure that we can actually catch these people."
The rest of the debate on this bill and other members' bills will take place on the next members' day on April 1st.
