The big news of the day is that contrary to expectations, the government will not be adopting Sue Bradford's Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill. Instead, the government will be using its time this week on a three hour debate on "the performance and current operations of Crown entities, public organisations and State enterprises". Anything I guess to pad the Order Paper and avoid the embarassment of running out of government business...
But while the government hasn't adopted the anti-smacking bill, it has adopted another: Sue Moroney's Health and Safety in Employment (ILO Convention 155) Amendment Bill. This has been in the ballot for some time, and at her press conference today Helen Clark indicated that the government would be moving to ratify - which means legislating. So it looks as if they'll have something to do when they get back after the Easter recess after all...
I suppose not adopting it gives them more time to get the spin machine into action on the bill. Hopefully more people come in behind the bill then.
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