Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 17th, 2016

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Would there be less chance of a free vote for MPs now?

[David Wilson]

The number of times they truly have free votes has probably not changed. There are issues in New Zealand that have been identified as conscience issues, really just by convention and tradition, things such as alcohol laws, same-sex marriage, abortion, gambling regulation, are issues on which members have been given a free vote by tradition and they continue to exercise that. In those circumstances where we have a true free vote, members are still called to the chamber with the bells and vote by going into the lobbies, and they will almost certainly not do that along party lines.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

But otherwise it's by party discipline, and you get the nod from above and you're told to vote one way, or proxy it in.

[David Wilson]

Yes, you are. Occasionally members do other things. We had a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement last week in the House. The major opposition party is opposed to it. One of the members, a former trade minister who began the negotiations on it when in government, actually voted contrary to his party, with the understanding that he was going to do that. He voted with the government in that instance.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

I'm sorry, I did get off track in terms of the family-friendly initiatives. I just thought it was a little interesting how you had it set up, so I do appreciate the answers. It allows me to better understand. Still, in terms of voting, I think as a legislator, that's your job. It's a large part of your job. It's a privilege to stand in your place and vote, and I couldn't imagine just telling the whip or the party leader, “This is the way I'm voting, and I'll be having lunch”, or something. Anyway, thank you very much for your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Malcolmson.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

As we are embarking on a democratic reform process in Canada, it's encouraging to me to look at the numbers, Australia's percentage of women in Parliament. I note that the Inter-Parliamentary Union says the top seven major democracies, that are at the top of electing women as a high percentage, are all proportional representation governments. New Zealand is one of them. That's encouraging to me. It follows for me also that, if you have a family-friendly Parliament, you are attracting more women in. If they are feeling supported, then they are more likely to put themselves on the ballot.

I want to track a little bit more some of the things you said in your opening comments around your set-up, because it went fast. How late do you sit in the evening? How late into the night ordinarily is your Parliament in session?

[David Wilson]

We sit until 10 p.m.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

You sit until 10, okay.

[David Wilson]

That's on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Two nights a week it's until 10. All right.

We've been expressing some concerns that, both for staff as well as for parents of young children, this can be a limiting factor as it interferes with their family life back at home. Is that a conversation you're having within your Parliament as well?

[David Wilson]

It's a conversation that, yes, certainly members with young children have raised. It's not so much a conversation that's happened around staff. I think that's because they've come into an employment relationship where they've acknowledged that this is something they'll have to do. It affects a relatively small number of staff. We probably have perhaps 10 Hansard staff and three or four clerks working on a night, so it does affect a relatively small number of people. But I'm conscious that this lack of time with family is something that might affect people's decisions to be involved in that sort of work, and it will also affect members' willingness to be involved.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Can you tell us more about your child care availability for parliamentarians? What ages of children? Are parliamentarians able to bring their kids without committing full time?

[David Wilson]

I don't have all the details of the parliamentary crèche. There is one within the parliamentary campus, and although anyone is able to go there, the true preference of its role is for children of members and staff of Parliament. It has quite a long waiting list. It takes children from a very young age. I couldn't say exactly what the start is, but I would think it's about six months, through until the time they're able to start school, which is five years of age.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Is that something you'd be able to provide to the clerk, just a confirmation about how young the children are and whether parents are able to drop in just for a couple of days a week?

[David Wilson]

Yes, I can, and sorry, I forgot about that part of your question. I believe that's the case, and that would be normal in most child care centres in New Zealand, but I'll check those two things and provide the information to the clerk.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thanks. That's something that we're finding is a problem for parliamentarians, so that would be helpful for us to have something to compare to.

Can you talk a little bit more about your electronic participation function? Clarify again for what types of parliamentary functions electronic participation is possible, and also talk a little bit about how much it's been taken up and how successful it's been.

[David Wilson]

Sure. It's still a requirement if a parliamentary committee wants to meet that the members must be there in person. They have no ability to take part by video conference or teleconference, but the committees do make use of video conference in the way that you are now to meet with people remotely around New Zealand, which is a very small country in comparison to Canada, but still occupies quite a lot of time to travel.

It's much more rare for committees now to travel to other centres unless they receive a very large number of public submissions and would like to be seen to be taking those views on board. Otherwise, they use video conferencing extensively to reduce travel time.

Generally speaking, committees meet on the same days that the House is sitting, although not at the same time, and so the members are usually all together in Wellington, in any case.

They have to be here in person to participate, but all of the documents that members might use, particularly for committees, are available to them electronically anywhere and on any device they use, provided they have an Internet connection.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

But they aren't able to participate in any parliamentary debate, or voting, or committee attendance electronically.

[David Wilson]

No, they're not. They must be present either in the committee room or in the precinct, in the case of the House, in order to vote or to speak.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

That's interesting. Thanks.

What's the longest your Parliament sits at any given time? We just heard from our Australian counterparts that a two-week straight session would be the longest. We have four weeks at a time in some cases. What's the New Zealand experience?

[David Wilson]

The usual experience would be to have three sitting weeks. The House would sit Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week.

We have a four-week sitting period starting next week which will include the budget. The budget's usually delivered around the end of May each year, and that would be the time the House would probably sit for the most weeks, and potentially also for the greatest number of hours.

I mentioned earlier that extended sittings have to a large degree replaced the use of urgency, but during the budget, particularly if there are measures that might be going to increase a tax or an excise on something, often that will be passed under urgency as soon as the budget's delivered. That would be one of the occasions where the House may well sit from Thursday into Thursday night, possibly into Friday, or even into Saturday, but it's really just about the only time of the year that would happen.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thanks.

My final question is, has New Zealand ever wished that it had a Senate? This has nothing to do with family. I'm following my neighbour's lead.

[David Wilson]

We had one until 1950, at least a sort of council, it was called, and it was abolished by the members of the Legislative Council in 1950.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Has anybody ever expressed deep regret over that?