The House

Parliament's urgent debate on the recent ferry grounding was a rollicking ride, and you might say the Speaker was to blame. One of the many rule changes that came into effect with last year's birth of New Zealand's current Parliament involved urgent debates. It allows the Speaker to announce prior to Question Time that there will be an Urgent Debate, rather than after it (and immediately...

The House covers the beginning of Scrutiny Week - when Parliament makes the Government really work to get its budget approved. It's Scrutiny Week at Parliament - a week when the House doesn't meet, and instead the twelve subject Select Committees spend the week grilling government ministers about their budget plans. You may have thought the budget was all sewn up, but that's far fro...

Despite Parliament having supremacy, governments often play the boss. This week the tables will turn as ministers face up to backbenchers for Parliament's first Scrutiny Week. This week Parliament is undertaking 12 concurrent inquiries into government spending plans, in a rejigged post-Budget process being called Scrutiny Week. It is hoped this will improve on recent Parliaments' lacklustre s...

Parliament has a long-held reputation for bad bosses and even worse behaviour. One solution is a new independent role to hear complaints. Parliament has a long-held reputation for bad bosses and even worse behaviour. The former Speaker Trevor Mallard commissioned outside advice on how to fix the problem. One of the many recommendations of that advice - the Debbie Francis Report - was the creation...

Budget Day in photos: Facts, attacks, stories, protests, pantomime and proclamations. The Sunday radio feature from The House surveyed the party leaders' speeches in the Budget Debate - the facts and attacks, the stories, the pantomime and proclamations. You can listen to that audio at the link below. But rather than a written version of the radio show, here is a photo essay of Budget Day at...

After the Budget Debate begins, it's usual to go into urgency to progress some government bills quickly through the House, or as is the case so far this year - not so quickly. After Ministers of Finance have delivered a Budget Statement and the party leaders have each had a crack at it, the House typically adjourns the debate over the wider budget and instead gets into some policy specifics. It&#x...

Once the Budget Statement is delivered, what happens next? The House looks beyond the initial announcement to the three different processes that follow it, sometimes concurrently. The focus of budget coverage is, of course, all about the numbers. Hundreds and thousands of numbers. Enough numbers to last a month, or as a budget speech would describe a month... a generous 120 days across the four ye...

Like the calm before a storm, Wednesday evening at Parliament was not about the budget. It was a Members' Day including a bill on cellar door tastings. We sip it with its sponsor Stuart Smith. During budget week most arguments and debates in the House relate to the budget (or unusually this week, to some trouble caused by a failure to spot the difference between a karanga and a speech), but within...

It's budget week at Parliament, but Thursday's announcement is just the beginning of a long process of the Government convincing Parliament to fund its ideas. It is budget week this week. I am sure you know that already. There are probably hermit monks, hidden in remote mountains, who are not only aware of budget week, but already tired of hearing about it. But few people realise that Thursday&#x2...

Parliament begins its election inquiry with a double-header and finds that blame is something of a boomerang. Chief Electoral Officer Karl Le Quesne at Parliament's Justice Committee. In each new Parliament, the Justice Committee has a recurring job. It holds an extensive inquiry into the election just gone, looking for ways to improve and update New Zealand's electoral law. That inquiry...

The Justice Committee has begun its inquiry into last year's election. It got some pretty solid and very polite suggestions right up front. This page hosts the audio from Thursday's episode of The House, focussing on the opening stanzas of Parliament's inquiry into the 2023 election. The written version of this story will be published as the Sunday (26 May) edition of The House. Go to th...

Changes to tenancy laws and the removal of Treaty obligations from Oranga Tamariki - two proposed new laws ask for public feedback. Two bills considered for the first time this week were highly contentious. Having had a first reading, both bills will go to select committee - the chance for public feedback. Listen to The House's outline of the bills in case you want to pitch in. The entrance t...

Parliament has been hearing submissions on the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. The House outlines the Bill and a variety of submissions. Parliament's Environment Committee has been hearing submissions on the Fast-Track Approvals Bill over the last three weeks. The oral submissions are a balloted selection from the many seeking to appear, and from the tens of thousands of written submissions receiv...

We talk with the Speaker, Gerry Brownlee, about Question Time, MP porkies, and stepping above the fray after 27 years or partisan politics, to instead become 'Parliament's man'. The role of Parliament's Speaker is ranked fourth in the nation's Order of Precedence, comes with the title 'Right Honourable' (if you like that sort of thing), and shepherds the crucial institution of...

Before each budget comes a political vanguard of announcements and trailers. Parliament has its own, less political signs that a budget is about to arrive. It is hard not to notice when governments get close to revealing a new budget. As they near, there is always a vanguard of political announcements and policy trailers. Alongside this political crescendo walks a quieter parliamentary parade. Ann...

The Annual Review Debate allows Parliament to grill government ministers on performance in their areas, unless someone runs out of time first. They did. For the past two weeks the main event in Parliament's debating chamber has been the Annual Review Debate. This ten-hour-long debate happens every year in the run-up to a new budget. Formally, it is the Committee of the Whole House stage for t...

Members of the public give some last-minute advice to the Government about its budget plans, via committee hearings into the Budget Policy Statement. There have always been a lot of rules that guide the way that governments plan and report their proposed and actual spending. The current approach possibly dates back to 1989, with the instigation of Labour's Public Finance Act (PFA), and then e...

In the lead-up to the Budget, Parliament goes over the head of the Government, asking the Governor General to add in some cash for Parliament's three watch-dogs. The Government's budget is decided by cabinet, after many months of work from the Minister of Finance, Treasury and individual ministries and agencies. But they don't get to make all the decisions. Before the budget gets present...

James Shaw's valedictory statement included thanks, humour, yarns, surprising allies, warnings and advice for MPs on avoiding the endless policy tug-of-war. In the last year or so Parliament has heard some unusually good valedictory speeches from a variety of outgoing MPs. Just a few weeks ago from Labour's Grant Robertson for example, or late last year from National's Todd Muller. This...

This week Parliament hosted both American and Ukrainian delegations. We chat with Galyna Mykhailiuk, who lead the visiting Ukrainian MPs. It's always news when the Prime Minister heads overseas, or a foreign leader arrives here. But prime ministers are comparative home-bodies. It's much more common for other ministers to travel. Collectively, even backbench MPs travel more than Prime Min...

MPs listen to hundreds of Select Committee submissions. But occasionally, like Camilla Belich today, they get to sit on the other side of the table themselves. MPs listen to hundreds, even thousands of submissions from the public on bills and petitions, even on Parliament's own rules. It would not be surprising if backbench MPs' dreams featured an endless parade of proffered opinions. Ve...

The Annual Review Debate begins this week, when Parliament quizzes ministers about past performance. Kieran McAnulty explains... One of Parliament's big piece debates begins this week. The Annual Review Debate happens every year as the penultimate stage of a long review of prior government spending and performance (for the financial year ended almost a year previously). It will stretch across...

Over the last six years, parliament's clerks have had to vet about 40,000 written questions each year. So how are written questions used and what are the democratic benefits? Over the last six years, Parliament's clerks have had to vet about 40,000 written questions each year. A written question - from an opposition MP to a minister - is a commonly used tool in Parliament, but not well-known...

The latest from the House Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

MPs have some of the highest pressure jobs in New Zealand, and the stressors aren't always what you might think. So does anyone help them carry the load, and how do they personally cope? We all know that Members of Parliament have a job that comes with a great deal of pressure. Mentally, it can be tough going, and sometimes this results in MPs making mistakes that can unravel not just their career...