Bridges SimonSTANDING ORDERSHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the House): I move That the amendments to the Standing Orders set out in Part 2 of the report of the Standing Orders Committee on the Review of Standing Orders be adopted with effect from the day after the dissolution or expiration of the present Parliament. Today's debate of course completes the standard triennial review of the Standing Orders looking at the procedures and practices of the House and how they can work more effectively. This year's recommendations cover changes to rules and practices in a number of key areas including a reorganisation of the House's select committees a change to the way the House debates international treaties and a number of suggestions for improving the lawmaking process.I would like to begin by making the observation that many overseas parliaments do not in fact review their rules regularly. While a specific issue may lead to a review or a rule change I believe that our process illustrates real value in frequently making improvements based on cross-party consensus.One of the underlying themes to emerge from the review of the Standing Orders is the growing status of the Business Committee notably since the review of the Standing Orders in 2011 as a way a mechanism or a process by which the Government and other parties can make the best use of House time to advance measures with broad-based support. I entirely welcome this. The National Government thinks it is an excellent development that is allowing the Parliament to evolve and to innovate in its processes and to be more relevant to its members and also to New Zealanders.Further to this the Standing Orders Committee noted that there are many ways for the Business Committee to promote better lawmaking: rewarding the use of inclusive and robust pre-legislative processes by the Government refereeing Supplementary Order Papers to select committees and arranging the Committee stage of bills. As we have seen during the 51st Parliament—Hon Trevor Mallard: You mean referring not refereeing.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —referring sure—the efficient use of available House time and mechanisms such as extended sittings have seen a relatively low use of urgency. I note that there is significant potential to consider other types of business through extended sittings including other non-controversial bills and special debate. I hope to see greater and more varied use of the procedure in the future. I would note in that regard that over the last month we have used extended sittings to good effect I think literally every single week and that is allowing Parliament to do more and to progress more of the programme that the Government has. I think that is good for everyone.I welcome the Clerk's intention to produce a Business Committee handbook to help both committee members and members generally to make the most of the Business Committee's powers to innovate. That is an important point because of course it will not just be the members of the committee; it will be all members of the House who will be able to put forward ways of doing things in relation to particular bills but also more broadly potentially.Further to this can I also add my appreciation to the members of the Business Committee for their constructive engagement this term. I think it has been in my experience both as deputy leader and now as leader very constructive. It is one of those things that people outside of course do not see but it is in some ways Parliament at its best. That does not mean that everything gets through it but we work constructively together across the parties and that has been a good balance of Government progressing its programme but also members of other parties getting to do and say things that are important to them. I think for example of the debate on climate change as a very good example and I note the contribution that the member Kennedy Graham made to progressing that.I am pleased that the Standing Orders Committee gave more formal consideration around the procedures for the Committee of the whole House stage of bills. It was during this Parliament that a precedent from the 1960s was drawn upon to seek leave for debate on two interconnected bills to be taken together as cognate bills which has since been used to facilitate legislation on which there is broad agreement. Many of the suggestions agreed to by the committee will aid us in ensuring that the House functions as an effective legislature. These include—and I will not go through all of them—that the structure of bills should not be formally linked to the arrangements for debate arranging for the Committee stage to consider a bill as a whole establishing a practice of determining themes for debate during the Committee stage of a bill removing the limit on the number of speeches for individual members in the Committee stage of a bill and requiring amendments to be lodged at least 24 hours before the Committee stage commences.All of those things I think are good and show that the Business Committee—and ultimately Parliament—is working together and evolving to stay relevant to members but also to the wider public. I look forward to these arrangements being trialled frequently during the 52nd Parliament with a view—as the report makes clear—to them becoming the default position and rules in the future.However I recognise that the review of the Standing Orders is also a balancing act requiring give and take between Government and non-Government parties. In this vein can I once again thank all members of not only the Business Committee but the Standing Orders Committee for their diligence and time throughout this process. With those comments I commend the report to the House.