A while ago I blogged about the oldest bill in Parliament, John Carter's Kerikeri National Trust Bill. This was first introduced in September 1995, and after passing its first reading, has hung around in select committee ever since. On Friday, the Local Government and Environment committee was supposed to report back on the bill and send it back to the House. But according to the Bills before Select Committees page, it has now been extended for another year.
I don't have anything in particular against this bill, but after eleven years, you'd think the committee would have reached a conclusion. The fact that they keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off suggests strongly that it's not going anywhere - in which case it would be better if they admitted it and puled the plug rather than continuing to have it hang around like a bad smell.
The Business Committee can extend the deadline for any bill. It requires "near unaniminity", but there's a lot of cooperation on these sorts of procedural matters.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting on the third reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill 188-2 - which after five years has slipped off the order paper, or rather "discharged", but no particular reason why. Would have solved a lot of headache in auckland over who pays what in water rates.
ReplyDelete*sigh*
one day labour will be out of power, and if they don't pass the the laws they want before then, they won't get another chance.