Wednesday, April 16, 2008



Members' Day

Today is Members' Day, and it looks like George Hawkins' Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill will receive its third reading. As noted in the Herald, the bill was originally opposed by the government (and by the Local Government and Environment Committee) for establishing local criminal law and discriminating on the basis of age. Now they're supporting it, after amendments which have brought it into line with the government's own anti-tagging bill. But the kicker is that there is a three-month delay in one of the key provisions coming into force, and that the bill will reportedly lapse when the government bill becomes law. Given that that bill is due back before the Budget, and is likely to be prioritised by the government as part of its pre-election law and order kick, then it is likely to be in force for all of two months. Talk about wasting Parliament's time...

The other important bill today is Chester Borrows' Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill, which criminalises people based on the clothes they wear. I'm not sure which way this will go, and I suspect it will come down to the votes of Taito Phillip Field or ACT. Assuming that is that the government wants to oppose it; they may be unwilling to in an election year, and instead vote to send it to select committee in the hope of burying it. IMHO, this would be a mistake. It's a terrible bill, and not one we should gamble on whether Labour will still be in power next year. It would be better to defeat it now instead.

There are a couple of other local bills, and it will be interesting to see whether they are talked out, or whether they whizz through them and get on to the real business. The window is closing to get Members' Bills through by the end of the sitting, and I can't really see anything beyond the Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill passing. Which means Ron Mark's pedophobia bill is hostage to his party's re-election, while Nandor's Waste Minimisation bill will have to be adopted by the government if it is to pass. As for the rest, I think the logjam will continue well into next year.

Update: I've emailed Tim Barnett, and it's likely that the government will support the Wanganui bill to select committee. This is the usual practice for local bills, and they even did it for the excreable Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill. So, Michael Laws gets his propaganda victory then; the interesting question is what happens when it comes out of committee - and whether others such as Burqa Bob decide that this is a license for them to target styles of clothing they also find "threatening"...