Evidence of meeting #22 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was zealand.
A video is available from Parliament.
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
No. Certainly not the public....
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I apologize if you already said this because I heard you say it goes until 10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. What about the other days of the week?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
On a Thursday, the House sits from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m., which are the same afternoon sitting hours it does the other days, but it doesn't sit on Thursday night usually. The House doesn't sit on a Monday or a Friday in a normal week either. It could and it will, if it sits under urgency, but generally it doesn't.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
You said there were some special hours that could be added in the mornings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays if there was a need.
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
That's correct. It's what's called an extended sitting, which is an initiative that was introduced only a few years ago in response to a concern about the amount that urgency was used to pass legislation through multiple stages, or even to enact it.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Are those extended sittings at the initiative of the government? Is that on consensus? How do you determine to go into an extended sitting?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
There are two ways of doing it. The usual way is by near unanimity on the Business Committee. The vast majority of members will give agreement, and the Speaker will judge if there is near unanimity. It's possible for the government to go into an extended sitting on a government motion, but it's quite reluctant to do that because generally the business that is dealt with under extended sittings is something that most or all parties agree to. It's been used also exclusively for passing the Treaty of Waitangi settlement bills, which are about redressing indigenous Maori grievances over land confiscation in the 1870s. There's wide political support for doing that, and so parties generally all consent to do it, and that's been a very useful way of progressing that legislation that has wide agreement and that's not controversial for the majority of people.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Thank you.
I may have misheard, but you said something about all debates having a fixed time frame of two hours. Can you explain that?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
Debates on a first, second, or third reading of a bill are limited to two hours. Twelve members will get a call of a maximum of 10 minutes each. They're able to share those calls, and in some cases the party might take two five-minutes calls instead. The maximum time for those debates is two hours. The committee of the whole House stage, where a bill is debated and considered in detail between the second and third readings, doesn't have a time limit. That one can run for a significant period of time, as members debate the details of the legislation. With that exception, virtually everything else has some sort of time limit specified in the Standing Orders. Some of those limits are quite long. The budget debate, for example, has a time limit of 13 hours. The debate on the address from the throne at the beginning of Parliament I think is 15 hours. While some of those time limits are quite long, they do give members certainty over when something is going to occur and how long it will take.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
What about the timing of the votes? Are the votes also as predictable?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
They're fairly predictable in that they'll always occur at the end of the debate. Some debates do progress more quickly, although they have a maximum time limit, say, of two hours. If it's something there's general agreement on, it may only take an hour and a half. There will always be a whip from each party present in the House ready to vote at any time. The only exception, as I said, would be those very small parties of just one or two members who are not able to maintain a continuous presence in the House.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
What about private members' business, how many hours are allotted to that?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
One Wednesday every fortnight is for members' business. That will be for consideration primarily of members' bills every two weeks.
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
All members who are not ministers are able to introduce bills, and they'll be debated every second Wednesday effectively. The only thing that would interrupt that would be the delivery of the budget. If that was to occur in a week where it would be a members' day, then the members' day would wait until the following week.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
You referred to a Business Committee. Is this a committee of all parties? Is it similar to our Board of Internal Economy? What is the purpose of the Business Committee?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
It is a committee of all parties. Every party is entitled to have one member on it, regardless of their size. Unlike most of our committees, which would have specified members named as members of the committee, this one doesn't, and any one member of a party is able to attend. Usually it will be a senior member or a whip from each party. The government Leader of the House will attend as well and talk about House business. It's chaired by the Speaker, and it makes decisions about the agenda for the House, the Order Paper, and timetabling. It has all parties present, and sometimes I'll use it to discuss possible procedural changes and try out innovations in the House. It meets every week at the start of the same week, and it operates on the basis of near unanimity. The Speaker will judge if he has almost every party in agreement, which means the large parties. If they disagree with something, that near unanimity won't be achieved.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate your being here with us.
We've picked up bits and pieces of this as we've gone through it, but I want to make sure I've got it all straight here. Let me ask you to run through it all again, or for the first time in some cases.
What is the number of sitting weeks in your parliament?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
There are 31 through the year.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Okay.
Are those spread out over the course of the entire year?
Clerk of the House, New Zealand House of Representatives
That's right. It's usually in blocks of three weeks at a time. Sometimes there is a four-week block. There's a large break in December and all of January, which is the New Zealand summer.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
You said you sit Tuesdays through Thursdays, generally. Was I correct when I heard on Tuesdays and Wednesdays it's from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and then on Thursday it's from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.?
