Drawn

The usual ballot for Member's Bills was held today, and the following bill was drawn:

• Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill (Doug Woolerton)

Normally you would expect such a bill to be voted down by the Labour-Progressive-Green-Maori Party bloc, but as with Ron Mark's Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill, Labour agreed to support such a bill to select committee in its confidence and supply agreement with NZ First. The interesting question will be how hard NZ First will push to get these bills enacted into law - whether it will accept merely taking them to committee, or whether it will threaten to bring down the government unless it gets support for the second and third reading. We'll probably know in a few months, when Mark's bill is reported back.

There were three new bills today. The most interesting is Metiria Turei's Adoption (Civil Unions) Amendment Bill, the title of which alone is probably enough to make the Christians squeal (Meyt seems to specialise in this). The other two were Rodney Hide's Regulatory Responsibility Bill, and Darren Hughes' Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill. Labour seems to be finally getting things in motion, which is good - though they're still using the ballot far less than they could. As with last time, there was also a preliminary ballot between United Future's and national's competing prison privatisation bills.

I'll be covering the new bills in an In the ballot post as soon as I am sent the details.