Drawn

A ballot for four member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn:

• Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave and Work Contact Hours) Amendment Bill (Sue Moroney)
  
• Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill (Phil Goff)
  
• Social Workers Registration (Mandatory Registration) Amendment Bill (Carmel Sepuloni)
  
• Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe)
  

So its a clean sweep for Labour, but also a political victory. Paid parental leave extension was defeated just five months ago on a tied vote, but now there's a majority for its passage. It'll take a while, but the bill will pass, unless the government tries to use its unconstitutional spending veto (and if it does, the result may then be to see that veto consigned to the dustbin of history where it belongs).

I'm also pleased to see Adrian Rurawhe's bill to bring Parliamentary Under-Secretaries under the OIA drawn. This ought to be absolutely non-controversial; they're performing Ministerial functions, so any information held in the performance of those functions should be official information. Sadly, I expect National to vote against it.