After 15 straight hours of "amendment... those of that opinion will say aye... party vote called for... ask the Clerk to conduct a party vote... wha tekau ma rua e Whakai nga (sp?)", Parliament is lost in a strange Twilight Zone. Thanks to National moving closure, they're now sitting past midnight, and will continue to sit until the current part of the Auckland dictatorship bill is put to bed. Then, if the bill isn't finished, they get to get up at 9am tomorrow morning to continue (the first Saturday sitting for a while).
Labour has been pretty inspired in its filibuster - it takes real effort to get that many amendments in order. And in the process they've also forced National into some pretty odd positions. Tuning in for half an hour tonight, I heard the government vote against requiring the Minister to appoint a woman to the Auckland transitional Authority to represent the region's 700,000 women - and then vote against requiring the ATA's members to actually be from Auckland. Both of these are reasonable, sane amendments - but they weren't National's amendments, and were therefore mindlessly opposed (besides, they'd clash with their plans to appoint 5 dead white male businessmen to run Auckland).
Meanwhile, if anyone wants to play time-travel games, go to Parliament. Inside, its Wednesday. Outside, its Saturday. I'm sure people can do something with that.
