Procedure and House Affairs committee  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 alw

Procedure and House Affairs committee  One Wednesday every fortnight is for members' business. That will be for consideration primarily of members' bills every two weeks.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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 member

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are 31 through the year.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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. Us

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. Certainly not the public....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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 u

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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 m

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We sit until 10 p.m.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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