Last year, the government systematically abused urgency to rob members of Member's Days and ram through legislation without proper select committee scrutiny. And in just the second third week back, they're doing it again, calling urgency to push their ACC bill and other legislation through its remaining stages. They're not introducing bills in secret this time, or bypassing select committee - but they will eat Wednesday, with the result that there will be no member's day this week.
So, it wasn't a first-year aberration, after which things would settle down. Instead, the abuse of urgency is standard operating procedure for this government. That has to change - or we should change them.
Correction: Its Parliament's third week back; I was thrown by Key's opening statement leading to a week of nothing.
