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Recent items from The House
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Learning to Minister, and a crucial skill
7:30 AM.Being a minister involves many difficult skills that other MPs don’t need. The most crucial might be questions. Answering them well has very little to do with performing ministerial duties well, but… Read more Audio
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Christchurch Call making headway
6:55 PM.The Governance and Administration committee has been hearing from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet about what progress has been made on the Christchurch Call. Read more Audio
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Committee hears more on plight of 'hope seekers' from Tuvalu
6:55 PM.Parliament’s Education and Workforce Committee has been considering the plight of undocumented Tuvaluans living in New Zealand without the right to work or to gain residency. Read more Audio
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Sense of urgency in Parliament amid winter gloom
6:55 PM.Two bills - one addressing the supermarket duopoly, the other providing for a fourth round of Covid vaccination - are set for their second reading, committee stage and third readings this week. Read more Audio
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Parliament’s Serjeant: More than ceremonial
7:35 AM.You might recognise him by his voice, so long as he is shouting. But despite his role being front-and-centre at Parliament you might be surprised what he does, and what he can do. Read more Audio
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Begin at the centre: interning at Parliament
7:35 AM.The House chats with current and former parliamentary interns from Steven Levine's Victoria University of Wellington internship programme about starting work at the very centre of things. Read more Audio
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Local authorities urge MPs to support alcohol harm minimisation bill
6:55 PM.A proposed member’s bill addressing a power imbalance that prevents communities taking steps to develop public health measures on alcohol use could bypass the ballot process if enough MPs agreed. Read more Audio
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If you miss a major reform, wait a day or two...
6:55 PM.In the current Parliament major reforms are coming along almost as frequently as buses. This week there are two separate and equally momentous legislative reform bills on the agenda. Read more Audio
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The Budget: Shades of debate
7:35 AM.MPs spend many hours shouting past each other about the budget, but have tactics and objectives behind all the hubbub. Phil Smith dissects the year’s first budget debate-fest - the eight hour long… Read more Audio
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Hanging messages on Pae Ora
6:55 PM.MPs have been getting down and dirty in the critical mud-wrestling phase of legislation to reform the public health system, the Pae Ora (Healthy futures) Bill. Read more Audio
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Aged Care workers call for increased minimum staff levels
6:55 PM.Parliament’s health select committee hears a cry for help from workers in aged care residential facilities that staffing levels in their sector are unsafe and failing people. Read more Audio
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Last chance for MPs to edit health reform bill
6:55 PM.Time is running out for changes to be made to proposed major health reform as the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill is in its committee stage. Read more Audio
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Playing catch-up to protect kids from digital harm
7:35 AM.The MP behind a Member's Bill which targets online grooming of children by adult predators hopes for it to be widened in scope to include offline or ‘real life’. Read more Audio
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Reading Everest: Notes on Budgets
7:30 AM.The Budget gets presented, debated and commented on more than most best sellers but like A Brief History of Time very few people have the time and energy to read all of it. Read more Audio
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The not-the-budget bills
6:55 PM.The budget wasn’t the only thing at Parliament this week. There was also legislation on surrogacy, free speech, political conflicts of interest, and sexual harassment. Read more Audio
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Question Time: How to get it straight
6:55 PM.Question Time works best if the MPs ask tight, non-political questions. Straight questions are more likely to get straight answers, so they’re kept as tight as possible but not always by choice. Read more Audio
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Oddity notes on budget week at Parliament
6:55 PM.Why is the Budget usually on a Thursday, why just before a sitting break, and why is the debate on it usually interrupted by urgent business? Read more Audio
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Oiling the democratic machine
7:00 AM.The House sits down with the Clerk of the House of Representatives, David Wilson, whose team runs the machinery of Parliament. Read more Audio
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When courts tell parliament 'no', what next?
6:55 PM.The Bill of Rights (Declarations of Inconsistency) Amendment Bill is the sort of legislation that constitutional law experts absolutely love but that may bore us to tears, until we realise it’s… Read more Audio
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How ministers reach a decision
4:46 PM.An intern in the office of the MP for Te Atatū, Phil Twyford, interviews him about his job and the decision-making process behind his job as a minister. Read more Audio
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Special debate on draft version of Resource Management Act replacement
6:55 PM.Parliament shows its flexibility during an extended sitting when Special Debate will take place on a couple of complex items, notably the Natural and Built Environments Bill exposure draft. Read more Audio
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Goodbye Hello - two ends of the Parliament journey
7:35 AM.The latest from the House Read more Audio
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‘No fair Ref!’: The political theatre of asking the impossible
6:55 PM.A lot of what happens in Parliament is theatre, including asking for what you know is against the rules. Read more Audio
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No matter what, any petition to parliament gets heard
6:55 PM.The specialist Petitions Committee has processed a record number of petitions and it's only half way through the term. It hears petitions on almost anything. Read more Audio