Today is a Member's Day, and the big drawcard is Helen Clark's valedictory speech at 17:00. If you're online, you'll be able to watch it here; otherwise I'm sure it'll get plenty of coverage on the evening news.
Actual business is fairly boring. The House is still bogged down in the Committee Stage of Chester Borrows' Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Bill, which will take up most of the time. There's another local bill on the Order paper to fiddle around with the Eden Park Trust, but that should be dealt with relatively quickly unless someone wants to filibuster. If we're lucky, they'll get to spend some time on the Committee Stage of Darien Fenton's Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill - but after last week I'm not regarding that as a strong likelihood. Next week maybe.
Still no chance of a ballot anytime soon, though MPs are increasingly announcing that they have bills. So we have National's Todd McClay taking another go at the ever-popular topic of Easter trading (but only for people in his electorate, mind), and Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-Galloway trying to ban the "powerwall" - the wall of cigarettes the tobacco companies use in an effort to circumvent advertising restrictions. But it is likely to be months before any of these bills - or any of the others I've heard about - has any chance of seeing the light of day.
Correction: Todd McClay's bill would allow communities to decide on Easter trading through their territorial authorities - making it a clone of Stephanie Chadwick's bill of a few years back. Somehow I'd got the wrong impression from my brief perusal of the press release last night...
