A series of procedural errors has meant legislation repealing the controversial Electoral Finance Act, introduced to Parliament on Thursday, will not be debated until next week.
The House moved into urgency on Thursday afternoon to push the bill through its first two readings.
Before Parliament rose for the dinner break, Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee adjourned the debate and the urgency motion to correct an error he had made earlier.
Mr Brownlee then made another error, which led to the bill disappearing from the night's agenda and onto next week's order paper.
The legislation will now be debated when the House resumes next week.
The Electoral Finance Act was intended to make campaign financing more transparent but implementation proved to be a headache for the Electoral Commission and political party officials.
Justice Minister Simon Power says the Electoral Amendment Bill puts in place an interim measure in case there is a by-election during the time a new electoral regime is being prepared.
He says all political parties and interested members of the public will have input to the new electoral law.
Labour MP David Parker says his party concedes there are imperfections with the law, and that it produced an overly complicated regime.
But he told the House on Thursday it does not resile from the principle which underpins the Act of transparency over donations.
