Thirteen bills get urgency treatment in penultimate sitting block of 2025

It is the penultimate sitting block of the year and the House has been moved into urgency as the government works through ticking off legislation before Christmas.

Urgency gives the government the ability to progress bills through the House more quickly, by enabling longer hours of debating with no stand-down period between each of a bill's stages of consideration - meaning a bill can go from first to third reading in the same day.

Under normal settings, the period between introduction and first reading is three days, and the period between first and second reading would be by default six months, so as to let the bill be considered by a select committee (though this is sometimes shortened). For the remaining stages, it's expected that the House waits one day before continuing on through the committee stage and third reading.

The government must give reasons as to why urgency is being accorded, which usually takes form as the Leader of the House standing up and stating the circumstances that are justifying the use of urgency. These justifications are sometimes tactical - like making sure a bill becomes law by a certain time for legal reasons, and sometimes political, but governments tend to not like being so explicit in pointing this out so terms like "fulfilling coalition agreements" are used.

The government gave a number of justifications for this week's urgency, but the broad reasoning from the Deputy Leader of the House Louise Upston was the desire to get legislation through before the end of year.

Upston was also careful to note that none of the bills getting the urgency treatment this week would bypass the select committee stage - which is probably the most controversial power that urgency gives governments.

Urgency bills this week

The government has thirteen bills at various stages going through the House this week, all with varying levels of contention.

They are the first reading and referral to select committee of:

• the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill;
• the Telecommunications and Other Matters Amendment Bill;
• the Meteorological Services (Acquisition and Policies) Legislation Amendment Bill.

The second reading of:

• the Game Animal Council (Herds of Special Interest) Amendment Bill.

The third reading of:

• the third reading of the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill.

And the remaining stages of:

• the Defence (Workforce) Amendment Bill;
• the Education and Training (Early Childhood Education Reform) Amendment Bill;
• the Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill;
• the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill (No 2);
• the Statutes Amendment Bill;
• the Immigration (Fiscal Sustainability and System Integrity) Amendment Bill;
• the Legal Services (Distribution of Special Fund) Amendment Bill;
• the Judicature (Timeliness) Legislation Amendment Bill.

The division bills

Not to be confused with the division bells (which is the dinging sound that lets MPs know to get themselves to the debating chamber), there are a number of bills dividing the House along party lines. Here's a snapshot of a few of them.

The Defence (Workforce) Amendment Bill enables the Chief of the Defence force to sign off on uniformed staff filling in for striking civilians.

National MP Scott Simpson spoke to the Bill on behalf of the MP in charge, Minister of Defence Judith Collins at its first reading and said it seeks to remove risks if or when industrial action occurs within the Defence Force.

"When civilian staff took industrial action last year, the Chief of Defence Force had to seek ministerial authorisation to redeploy military personnel to perform the duties of civilian staff taking industrial action. Fourteen days later, the Minister of Defence had to return to Parliament to seek a resolution to continue to redeploy military personnel to perform civilian tasks as industrial action was still ongoing. This event showed us just how vulnerable the management of the defence force could be when industrial action takes place," Simpson told the House back in September.

The Bill is supported by all coalition parties, and opposed by all opposition parties, with Labour MP Peeni Henare saying during the first reading that the Government had gone back on their word.

"When the Minister was making cuts to the civilian roles in the Defence Force, we asked this House and the Minister, on numerous occasions, whether those cuts would have a meaningful impact on the role of our NZDF personnel to either deploy or to do their job," he said.

"The Minister told this House, "No, it wouldn't."-"No, it wouldn't."-yet here we are, saying that there are challenges here because there is industrial action being taken, and, now, all of a sudden, the Government is trying to backfill those spaces to make sure that they can continue the very basics of their functions."

Another bill on the list that has MPs divided across the house is the Education and Training (Early Childhood Education Reform) Amendment Bill.

The Bill will put in place some changes from 2024's regulatory review of Early Childhood Education and meet one of the coalition agreements between National and ACT.

At its second reading, Associate Minister of Education David Seymour told the House it will create and define the responsibilities of the director of regulation.

"They're going to actually have their responsibilities set out in legislation, and they're going to have the rights of people who run early childhood centres set out in legislation, and the purpose of regulating set out in regulation. In particular, things like enabling choice for parents is in this legislation. Things like ensuring childhood safety is in this legislation. Things like ensuring those things with the least possible regulation so that the people like the ones in that room aren't tied up in endless red tape."

Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan said there was a lack of information about that role.

"There is so little information in the select committee stage about how that Director of Regulation is going to eventuate, particularly ... .about when the Director of Regulation is going to be formed," he said.

"They are also going to be overseeing kōhanga reo and puna reo, yet there is no evidence in here that says anything about our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. In fact, the regulatory impact statement said there has been limited ability to consult with Māori on this bill. Why? Because the minister doesn't want to hear from Māori on this bill, or from the general population, or from kōhanga reo or from puna reo because it doesn't suit their agenda."

That Bill will this week go through the remaining committees of the whole House and third reading stages to be passed into law (likely next week).

Those who have heard of herds of special interest might have a special interest in the first bill of Minister for Hunting and Fishing James Meager, who introduced the Game Animal Council (Herds of Special Interest) in June 2024.

Meager said it seeks to clarify that a herd of special interest designation can be made within national parks - but what actually is a herd of special interest anyway?

"Herds of special interest are simply herds of game animals on public conservation land that have been formally designated by the minister to be managed for hunting purposes. The designation enables certain valued introduced species already present in a specific geographic area to be managed for qualities prized by hunters, such as the size and quality of individual animals. However, there is some ambiguity in the current legislative framework," Meager explained.

Green MP Scott Willis, himself a hunter, said that the Bill creates division.

"This is opening a door to greater division and to losing the justification that hunters have for working with conservationists. The Green Party policy is that we should, where possible, remove or eradicate large, non-predator, invasive species in the areas where they threaten important ecological values, and if this bill proceeds, any eradication efforts in national parks would not be authorised."

That Bill will receive its second reading under urgency, with MPs likely to speak on what was said during the select committee process.

Urgency isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is a useful tool for governments to progress legislation quickly, and there are a number of circumstances that warrant its use. However as the perhaps trite saying 'with great power comes great responsibility' suggests, it should be used carefully, especially in cases when the select committee stage is skipped (which isn't happening this week).

Coincidentally, alongside the business in the House, Parliament is also busy this sitting block hearing oral submissions on the Review of Standing Orders - Parliament's rules. Some of those submitters, like former Prime Minister Geoffery Palmer, have suggested that urgency should be limited to extraordinary circumstances like national emergencies.

Ultimately, the onus is on the members of the Standing Orders committee to consider whether restrictions should be placed on the government's ability to use urgency. This will require MPs to reconcile the political and productivity value of swift lawmaking with the precedents they want to set for future governments.

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