My spies have come through once again, and I have received a copy of today's ballot for Private Members' Bills. New bills this time round include:
- Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill (Rodney Hide)
- Parole (Truth in Sentencing) Amendment Bill (Heather Roy)
- Resource Management (Restricted Coastal Activities) Amendment Bill (Nick Smith)
- Land Transport Management (Public Private Partnerships) Amendment Bill (Judy Turner)
There's also been some shifting of bills between members (so for example the NZFirst Treaty Principles Deletion Bill is now the responsibility of Barbara Stewart rather than Doug Wollerton), but that's not unusual. Once again there's nothing from the Maori Party (they must still be drafting those bills on banning smoking and entrenching the Maori seats), and Labour is still woefully underutilising its potential. Again, if there are any Labour MPs in need of a bill, I have one to offer...
The draw will be held at noon.
The thing in common with a lot of measures, like abolishing the offences of blasphemy and sedition, entrenching the Maori seats and indeed reducing the number of MPs is that we would be much better off with a proper constitutional review.
ReplyDeleteIf the Bill of Rights had teeth - e.g. it overrode laws that conflicted with it (as the US equivalent does), then it wouldn't be necessary to repeal sedition or blasphemy laws - they could simply be declared invalid by a judge.
Equally, the number of seats is mixed in with the operation of MMP (as previously noted) and really, all of our "core" electoral provisions should be entrenched.
Yes - but until we get one, we have to work piecemeal.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I agree on entrenching the size of the House and the Maori seats as well - but as mentioned elsewhere, such a bill would require unanimous support. And I really don't think they'll be able to get it.