John Key announced in his press conference yesterday afternoon that the cabinet had agreed to repeal provocation, and that a bill would be introduced into Parliament this week. But Lianne Dalziel has already had her Crimes (Abolition of Defence of Provocation) Amendment Bill drawn from the ballot. So suddenly we've gone from a situation where no-one cares about provocation to one where both major parties are in a race to see who can repeal it first.
And it is a race. Standing Order 260(a) prevents MPs from proposing in the same calendar year
a bill that is the same in substance as a bill that received, or was defeated on, a first, second or third reading.Which means not only that they can't progress both bills at the same time - but that, if they're serious about repeal, they have to vote for the first one to come up. Otherwise, if they vote it down, then it has been defeated at first reading and so blocks any similar bill for the rest of the year.
Dalziel's bill may come up for first reading next Member's Day (the 19th) - in just five sitting days time. A newly introduced bill must lie on the table for three sitting days (including the day on which it was introduced) before it can be debated. So if the government wants to be sure of pre-empting Labour and claiming the glory of repeal for itself, they need to introduce their bill tomorrow, and have the first reading on Tuesday the 18th. Otherwise, they may find themselves forced to vote for an opposition bill in order to enact their legislative agenda.
(Personally, I don't care who passes it - I just want the law repealed. But there's a danger here that we'll see the worst case scenario: National being too slack to do it themselves, then voting down Dalziel's bill out of spite because it's not theirs (their standard practice with member's bills) - meaning that repeal will be delayed until 2010 at the earliest).
Correction: The ever useful Graeme Edgeler has pointed out a slight change in Standing Orders at the end of last term: government bills introduced while the House is sitting lie on the table until the next Tuesday. So, the government has a little more time to get its act together than I thought, but still have to introduce their bill this week to beat Dalziel.
