Member's Day

Today is a Member's Day, and one of wall-to-wall first readings. First up is Simeon Brown's Psychoactive Substances (Increasing Penalty for Supply and Distribution) Amendment Bill, a piece of classic law-and-order bullshit about filling prisons. Second is Kieran McAnulty's Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill, which would improve the rights of contract workers in the "gig economy". It's a bill which has been a long time coming and which seems well justified in the modern employment market. Next there's Melissa Lee's Accident Compensation (Recent Migrants and Returning New Zealanders) Amendment Bill, which plugs a small hole in ACC coverage (a whole which NZ First is trying to make bigger). And finally there's Barbara Kuriger's Oranga Tamariki (Parent’s and Guardian’s Responsibility) Amendment Bill, which is yet more law and order bullshit from the party of pedophobes. If the House moves quickly, it could make a start on Denise Lee's utterly misnamed Employment (Pay Equity and Equal Pay) Bill, which is designed to make equal pay claims more difficult.

Angie Warren-Clark's Crimes (Offence of Blasphemous Libel) Amendment Bill has been withdrawn, since now ther's a government bill.

There should be a ballot for three or four new bills tomorrow, depending on how many they get through today.