Special ballot and interesting motions

Remember the Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill? For most of the past year, it has been hanging around at the bottom of the Order Paper, "below the line", having been postponed by its sponsor before ever receiving its first reading. This has taken up one of the slots for Member's Bills and prevented quite as many being introduced and debated. I have now heard from one of my spies that there is going to be a special ballot today so that four bills are available next Members Day. It will be interesting to see what gets drawn...

Also today, Parliament will be debating two rather interesting government motions relating to the Intelligence and Security Committee, the body which supposedly oversees the SIS. The first would add three new members - Michael CUllen, Winston Peters and Rodney Hide. The second would provide for the Committee to examine bills, petitions, financial reviews, estimates, supplementary estimates, treaties and any other matters relating to the SIS and GCSB - in other words, for it to act like a real select committee rather than a rubberstamp. Though I guess the proof of that will be whether it meets for more than 45 minutes a year...

Of course, this being the government on an intelligence matter, they were effectively moved in secret, appearing at the bottom of the Order Paper (the bit no-one checks) at 11pm last night, and they're likely to be rushed through today using the government's power to alter its own order of business. While I think both are positive steps, it would have been nice if they'd been handled in an open, democratic manner rather than blitzkrieged behind everyone's back...