‘Urgent’ legislation in the New Zealand House of Representatives and the bypassing of select committee scrutiny

Abstract

The day after the opening of the new Parliament in December 2008, the National Party minister and Leader of the House, Gerry Brownlee, moved a motion to accord urgency to certain aspects of business. This was passed by 63 votes to 52, with the Māori Party abstaining. It was resolved ‘that urgency be accorded the introduction and passing of Government bills dealing with taxation, employment relations, bail, education and sentencing’, and some other aspects of House business (New Zealand House of Representatives (NZHR), 2008). Although National had insufficient votes to govern on its own (58 in the 122-seat House) it knew that the House would approve the urgency motion because National had the support of three other parties, the Māori Party (five), the ACT party (five) and United Future (one), giving the government a secure majority so long as either ACT or the Māori Party voted for its bills and procedural motions. The above bills were not referred to select committees for public submissions and scrutiny.