Crawling Through Members’ Day

Roles were reversed in Parliament today as Government MPs tried to filibuster Members’ bills and Opposition MPs sought to speed up progress

National MPs are seeking to delay debate on Labour’s Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill and are stretching out proceedings.

As a result the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill came in for thorough examination from Government MPs.

The bill’s promoter Damien O’Conner said there would be many people relieved that Parliament was reluctantly passing the legislation to fix “what could be politely called mistakes’ by the local council in setting rates.

The debate saw a bit of role reversal with Government MPs taking full calls, while Opposition MPs made short speeches, which is the opposite of what happens when the Government is pushing through its programme.

The bill completed its third reading by 119 to 1 with Mana opposed.

MPs began debate on the Sullivan Birth Certificate Bill which allows a woman to have both her mothers named on her birth registration.

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