Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day, the last one for the year. First up there is a bunch of new private and local bills - the Thomas Cawthron Trust Amendment Bill, the New Plymouth District Council (Perpetual Investment Fund) Bill, and the Hawke’s Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society Empowering Bill. None of these should be very contentious (or at least, not at this stage), and they're all likely to be sent off to select committee before the dinner break. After that, there's the committee stages of Ginny Andersen's Crimes (Child Exploitation Offences) Amendment Bill and Deborah Russell's Employment Relations (Extended Time for Personal Grievance for Sexual Harassment) Amendment Bill, which will probably take the rest of the night. If the House moves quickly it may get on to the second reading of Ian McKelvie's Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for Race Meetings) Amendment Bill, which has the weird feature of the committee refusing to make a recommendation on whether it should be passed or not as it is a "conscience issue" (a perfect example of how our political system simply abrogates responsibility on alcohol policy). There is unlikely to be a ballot tomorrow.