Member's Day

According to the daily report on progress in the House, Lynne Pillay's Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill (which would remove a now-irrelevant clause from the HRA allowing the military to discriminate by barring women from combat roles) passed its first reading. It will now go to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. Jackie Blue's Official Information (Openness of District Health Boards New Zealand) Amendment Bill also passed its first reading, so there will be a ballot tomorrow for two more bills. Given that there are three Member's Bills scheduled to come back from committee by the next Member's Day, and more after that, we may soon be seeing a slowdown in the number of new bills as the second readings and committee stages clog the ballot.

Gerry Brownlee's Education (Trustee Ineligibility) Amendment Bill was also before the House, but rather than discharging it (as recommended by committee), Brownlee wasted everybody's time so he could argue that he was right and everybody else (including his colleagues Bill English and Allan Peachy, who sat on the committee) was wrong. He then pushed it to a vote, which he lost, despite forcing those same colleagues to back him - an embarrassing display of vainglory. At least Rodney Hide seems to have behaved with some grace in withdrawing his Sex Offenders Registry Bill (similarly rejected by committee) rather than wasting everybody's time with pointless posturing.