Urgency

Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) Link to this

I move, That the House afford urgency to the continued first reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill, the second reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill, and items Nos 1, 2, and 3 on the Order Paper.

Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) Link to this

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It is a question of asking you for a ruling as to whether the motion that has just been moved was one that was agreed to within the original urgency motion. We are now currently in urgency. I cannot remember that motion being on the list, and if that is not the case, we have to come out of urgency—

Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) Link to this

In moving the motion earlier, it was my mistake that I left out two very important words. The consequence of that is that the House may end up doing considerable extra time next week. There is a general understanding that we will be sitting until 10 o’clock tonight, so I took the step of moving a motion to adjourn the previous debate. We have now adjourned it; we are in normal House time. I am now moving urgency according to the motion that I have just moved. It is different from the previous one, so as to satisfy the requirements of the Standing Orders. That is essentially the situation we are in.

Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) Link to this

That is the very point that I was making. The fact that we have adjourned a particular debate, when we have another debate already set down and agreed to by the House under urgency, does not mean that we can then move to another urgency motion. The proper thing to do is to deal with the next matter that the House has already agreed that urgency be accorded to. That is the next order of business, not this one here. We have to go to that matter, we have to deal with it, and then we have to come back to this motion.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) Link to this

My understanding is, and I rule, that what has happened is quite in order. The Leader of the House has sought to go out of urgency, whereupon the Government can indicate at any time that it does not wish to continue with the urgency. It has now moved another motion, on which we will put the vote.

Hon DARREN HUGHES (Senior Whip—Labour) Link to this

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is a new point of order. In order for the Government to get the House sitting hours extended this evening from 7.30 p.m. to 10 p.m., the Government is required to advise the Business Committee of going into urgency, and the Government did that at its second attempt at the meeting on Tuesday. We have had a motion for urgency that was voted on for the House to go into urgency. The Leader of the House has now broken that, and I cannot see how he can then try to create a second round of urgency when that was not advised to the Business Committee at the meeting held earlier in the week.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) Link to this

I will hear from Mr Brownlee, and that may well satisfy your point of order.

Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) Link to this

This situation is caused by a mistake on my part. I have admitted that to the House. I left two important words out of the motion, and there is no intention that the House should sit beyond 10 o’clock this evening under urgency. The motion that I just mentioned was rather due to the fact that the House appears to be making greater progress than was previously anticipated. But if the member wishes me to pare things back, then there is another procedure that we might go through. This is the way to achieve the outcome that was previously notified. I make the point that urgency was notified for this day, and nothing has changed in that regard.

Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) Link to this

I think it does go back somewhat to the original point that I was trying to make, which is that when the House has taken urgency, it takes urgency for a particular set of business, and other business cannot be included while that urgency is occurring. It appears to me that what has happened here is that when we have not completed the original urgency—merely adjourning a particular debate, as the member has done and is able to do—we go on to the next business of the original urgency motion. We are not in a position under the original urgency motion to take another motion that is not within what was set down to the House and agreed to by the House. I accept that the Leader of the House has made a mistake and is trying to get out of it. As a Government whip for a number of years, I know that mistake has been made in the past and is a serious one. Frankly, my memory is that when one makes a mistake like that, one is essentially stuffed.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) Link to this

That is not really a part of the point of order. We are not currently in urgency. It is the Government’s prerogative to move whatever motion it likes, and if members have displeasure at that they can vote accordingly.

Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) Link to this

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I know that you are getting unhappy, but one thing I have done on a number of occasions as a Minister, and that I have organised to be done in the past as a whip, is the adjournment of a debate under urgency. It can be done in two ways. It can be adjourned and set down for further consideration presently, and it stays within the urgency motion, or one can do as the Leader of the House has done now, which has the effect of the House being unable to consider that matter under the current urgency motion. But quite often there have been 10 or 15 other matters for which urgency has been accorded. In this case there is only one further matter for which urgency has been accorded, and what happens is that when we abandon one matter, we go on to the next. Urgency is not currently breached.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) Link to this

Let me bring to the House’s attention Speaker’s ruling 12/3. It quite clearly sets out that the urgency is broken, so I will put the motion. The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those who are of that opinion will say Aye—

Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) Link to this

I move, That the House accord urgency to the first reading and the second reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill, and Government orders Nos 1 and 2.

Hon DARREN HUGHES (Senior Whip—Labour) Link to this

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I make two points. First, the Leader of the House has now given us a different motion from the one he gave to the House before we got into this little debate. Second, I want to be clear what the motion was about, given that the Leader of the House was not sure himself. He is required to advise the House why urgency is required. But the main point is that he has shifted the business within 10 minutes of his earlier motion in terms of what we are meant to be in urgency about.

Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) Link to this

Yes, it is true. I listened to the pleadings of Opposition members, who do not want to be here for additional hours, and thought we had better drop one item off. If they want me to put one item back on, then certainly I will do so. The reason for the urgency is that we see the Electoral Amendment Bill as being extremely important to the Government’s programme. We want it to be passed in 100 days. The motion affords the opportunity for that. The Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill is one that is very important also, and we want that to be progressed. The Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill provides that those who commit crimes are levied by $50 for a victims’ fund. We think that is very important, and we want that to be debated as well.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) Link to this

We have had an explanation about urgency being broken, we have had an explanation from the Minister as to why the urgency is required, and I will now put the motion.