Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day, and it looks like we're finally approaching some interesting business. First there's the vote on Paul Foster-Bell's Arbitration Amendment Bill and the first reading of Darroch Ball's (misnamed) Youth Employment Training and Education Bill (its about boot camps, of course, scratching that perennial old person itch of "stick 'em in the army"). After that there's Dvid Parker's Ombudsmen (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill, which is back for a second try having failed to pass a couple of years ago. Then we have Jan Logie's Equal Pay Amendment Bill, which would implement Human Rights Commission recommendations for transparency of pay equity statistics. And if the House moves fast, it will make a start on Ruth Dyson's Crown Minerals (Protection of World Heritage Sites) Amendment Bill, which seems suddenly topical in light of National's renewed desire to turn the conservation estate into an open-cast coal mine.

Somewhere in there there will also be an attempt to introduce a bill to repeal the crime of blasphemous libel. Hopefully it succeeds. If not, hopefully it'll show up in tomorrow's ballot.