This morning, after passing a US-style guilt by accusation copyright law, Parliament began debating the committee stage of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Bill. Normally in a committee stage debate MPs debate specific amendments to the bill. But this morning, they couldn't, because the government hadn't finished drafting them yet:
Labour this morning asked to suspend consideration of the bill because the Government had not produced the formal details of changes it was proposing. The request was denied by the chair.As a legislative process goes, this is a total abortion. The government called urgency, then stalls. Any amendments actually put to the House will then be rushed through without proper consideration. And then politicians wonder why the public has such a low opinion of them...Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said it was not essential that the formal details for changes were before Parliament while the bill was in its final stages.
