- Hold a Budget.
- Introduce an Appropriations Bill which takes precedence over all other business.
- Don't debate that bill. Or rather, give it half an hour a day, then move on to other stuff, ensuring that it stays at the top of the order paper.
- Repeat step 3 until bored.
This is exactly what the government has done. And as a result, for the second week in a row, they've stolen a Member's Day off the House. And they look likely to do it next week as well, and the week after that, and the week after that - as long as they can get away with it. Who needs to abuse urgency when you can abuse budget rules instead?
As for why they're doing this, Member's Days give non-government MPs a chance to advance an alternative agenda and present solutions to problems the government is ignoring. There's no benefit to the government in that, and so they have decided to do their utmost to prevent them from happening at all. While this is within their power - with a majority, the government can ignore standing orders if it wants to - it is deeply unconstitutional. And National needs to be held to account for it.
