As everyone knows by now, Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill passed its first hurdle, being voted to select committee 65 - 54. I was expecting a straight party-line vote between the progressive faction of Labour, Progressives and Greens vs the regressive faction of everybody else, but in fact there were a couple of surprises. Firstly, the Maori Party supported the bill (contrary to expectation), and secondly, New Zealand First MPs Brian Donnelly and Peter Brown voted for it as well. It's nice to see that they're not all bad (or at least, not all the time).
There will be a real fight in committee over this bill, over whether to better define "reasonable force", to pass it as is, or to dump it completely. If you have a strong opinion, it might pay to start thinking about turning it into a submission.
Meanwhile, the other controversial bill of the day, Ken Shirley's New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control (Nuclear Propulsion Reform) Amendment Bill (which would have allowed nuclear powered ships into our harbours) was voted down, with every party but ACT opposing it. Now that really does bring a smile to my face...
At least ACT has some integrity. The Nat's are just as keen to get those nukes in our harbours but, of course, will not say so before the election.
ReplyDeleteThe ACT bill called for a referendum. Those who voted against did not so much oppose nuclear powered ships, as oppose voters having the opportunity to decide whether they want nuclear powered ships. I wonder why.
ReplyDeleteNigel: the actual bill promised no such thing. Ken Shirley had promised an amendment to allow a referendum as a way of further backing National into a corner, but it wasn't part of the bill as presented to Parliament.
ReplyDeleteTry again next time.
Actually, Brian Donnelly is
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand First's token
voice of liberal sanity.
He has a comparatively
good voting record on most
issues. Not surprised he
voted for the anti-belting
bill though- he signalled
it well in advance...
Craig Y