Procedure and House Affairs committee  You're welcome. We're pleased to speak to you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At the moment there's only one. There's a parliamentary undersecretary, as they're called, and that's even lower than a parliamentary secretary. That person is able to submit bills. He is not considered a minister so he is not able to ask questions at question time or introduce l

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I would imagine that would have some effect on the willingness of some people to seek election, or of their families to want them to be involved in it. At question time, certainly, it's very loud and confrontational, and much more so from members in the chamber than for peop

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was neither of those options. It was done unanimously by all parties in the House, and they do a review in every three-year Parliament of all Parliament's rules and make quite frequent adjustments to them, but it's always done unanimously, with the party realizing they're not

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct. Seventy-five per cent of the population live in the North Island, well into the southern point of that island, so the vast majority of members also live there, and they do fly. Auckland is the most popular city, with a quarter of the country's population, so it ha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's a good question. Every list member would consider themselves to have a riding or an electorate, though they're not directly elected by it; they're elected by the nation at large. All of them will stay in office in some part of the country, which would usually be where the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The members themselves are free to travel as much as they like within New Zealand. That is bought and paid for, for them, by the parliamentary service. They're entitled to bring their family members to Wellington a certain number of times a year. I'll have to check that number an

Procedure and House Affairs committee  At the moment there are 121 members in the House and the number does vary slightly because the list does top up those numbers. We are a party. Perhaps one is a seat but one is a very small share of the total national vote. So we had 122. We currently have 121. It's possible, but

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Questions are held at 2 p.m. as soon as the House sits each day. There are 12 questions to ministers. It usually lasts about an hour, but it doesn't have a time limit. There are rules that questions must be short, just long enough to ask a question, and the answer is also suppose

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. They can have multiple supplementary questions. A party has a weekly allocation of supplementaries that is allocated proportional to their size in the House.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would have to estimate. I know of two with children who are nursing at the moment. I would guess around half of the members have children who are still dependent on them.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, and you're right; I think most Prime Ministers sitting for a reasonable period of time in New Zealand would have been thrown out of the chamber at least once. In fact, the current Prime Minister, since he's been Prime Minister, which has now been eight years, hasn't been m

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There's a room next to the debating chamber that has been designated as a parent's room for members where they're able to feed or change their children. They can have a bassinet or a cot in there for the child to sleep in. It is used particularly with members. Members can also ha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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 de