Wednesday, May 09, 2012



Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day, and first up is Tau Henare's Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill. This is likely to be hard fought, as its purpose is to let bad employers like the Talley Brothers (big National donors, remember) prevent their workers from going on strike by waging endless lawsuits against unions. Sadly, it will become law anyway.

The other bills likely to be debated today are all backed by strong consensus. Michael Woodhouse's Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill is uncontroversial, and should fly through. Te Ururoa Flavell's Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment is more controversial, especially in light of the Sky City deal, but the government has indicated it will support it to select committee to allow the issue to be debated. And I would be very surprise dif any party other than ACT votes against Kennedy Graham's Register of Pecuniary Interests of Judges Bill at this stage.

There will likely be a ballot tomorrow for one bill. If you're curious about what might pop out, Parliament has a list of proposed member's bills here.