The House: Urgency And Fudging Budgets

Louis
Collins, for The House*

This week,
Parliament began with a secret bill and ended with a debate
on coping with climate change. Between the two the word
“growth” bloomed.

At the link above you can hear
this week’s Sunday Report from The House,
with coverage on the politics of fudging budget numbers and
the week’s debate on the coming budget. You can also read our
coverage of the use of fictional fiscal cliffs, and
the purposeful fudging of budget numbers. Who would guess,
sometimes MPs stretch the truth to suit their own
purposes.

The week began with the Government’s
first dose of urgency for the year. It was needed to pass
all stages of the Bail
(Electronic Monitoring) Amendment Bill, which
retrospectively fixes a law that has fallen behind common
practice. You can read or listen to an explanation of
that here.

That
urgency lasted until around 1pm on Wednesday (with an
11-hour suspension overnight), during which the House also
got through the committee stage of the Land
Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill, which enables
random roadside testing of potential drug drivers.

On
Wednesday, Parliament felt the first real sense of budget
fever, as the House debated the Budget Policy Statement and
Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. National kept up the
‘growth growth growth’ refrain until the Speaker reproved
them for sounding like a revivalist tent meeting. Opposition
parties criticised what they perceived as measly levels of
funding. You can read
our report on that at the link.

Later that
day, during members’ business, Labour MP, Camila Belich’s Crimes
(Theft by Employer) Bill passed its third reading, and
was signed into law the next day. It amends the Crimes Act
to acknowledge withheld wages from an employer as
theft.

On Thursday, the House debated on the Finance
and Expenditure Committee’s report
on its Inquiry into climate adaptation. In the report,
the committee provided a myriad of recommendations to the
Government in regard to how they approach the mammoth and
multifaceted task of climate adaptation. We’ll have more
reporting on that debate next
weekend.

*RNZ’s The House, with insights
into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with
funding from Parliament’s Office of the
Clerk.

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