Cullen Michael: Sittings of the House 
Cullen Michael: Sittings of the House 
[Volume:628;Page:229] 
Hon Members 
: Holidays! 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I actually thought it was holiday time in question time myself too; I would not have expected the Opposition to say that. [ 
Interruption 
] The one thing that the Treasury papers did not state is that there is room for large tax cuts now. They stated that we should be maintaining the current surpluses. I suggest that the National Party actually reads to the end of the document and not just the first bit that it likes. 
Simon Power 
: No! 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Exactly! Mr Simon Power one of the rising aspiring members for the leadership of the National Party says “No”. 
I will get back to the motion. It states that after this week we will sit for one further week have a 1-week adjournment then come back for 2 weeks finishing on 15 December. In 2006 we will resume on 14 February although looking at the Opposition I wonder why we bother coming back at all. Unfortunately we have to have Parliament although it is true that we can manage without the National Party being here for all the use that it is in terms of contributing to this place. We certainly get far better opposition from the Maori Party on occasions from New Zealand First on occasions from United Future on occasions from the Greens on occasions from ACT on occasions and even about once every 3 years the Progressive party puts on a better show than the National Party does in that respect. But never mind no doubt sometime soon the National Party will change leaders again and we will go through the whole process one more time. 
Darren Hughes 
: And Bill English is trying out the seat! 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I notice that Bill English is smiling at the thought of that but it is John Key who is the happiest-looking man in Parliament these days which tells us something. 
So we will come back on 14 February and we will go through a process of 3 or 4 week sessions for the remainder of the year. At the moment the timetable is set down to 14 December 2006. That provides for 29 sitting weeks next year or 87 sitting days with the potential for 1 more sitting week at the end making 90 sitting days. Standing Order 78(3) provides that the sitting year should be approximately 90 days. Last year and the year before we went rather over that. I think that one year we went for 34 sitting weeks and 33 sitting weeks. We are now basically forecasting a sitting year next year that is much more in line with the norm outlined within the Standing Orders. So it is certain that there will be 87 sitting days with a possibility of 90 sitting days if we proceed through to 21 December. I must say from long experience I notice that when we get into the week before Christmas there is a sudden accelerated desire on the part of an extraordinarily wide range of members of Parliament to call it— 
Simon Power 
: Not true. We never cave on those urgency motions. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I am sorely tempted to comment on the truth of the situation but the nature of agreements between whips and the Leader of the House prevents me from going into the sordid details of what has occasionally happened in recent years in terms of ensuring that Government business has finished not merely in time to ensure that the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt got his plane to go overseas but also that colleagues on the opposite side of the House got home at the time that they were promised they were going to to see their families and to deal with other things that are going on. 
So that is what we have set down. This will I think provide very early notice. Most important it means that members can plan and parties can plan for activities during the adjournment periods. But I would issue just one note of warning. I think it is very important that people understand that when we have a 2 and 3-week adjournment there is select committee work to go on during that period as well and it is not all other things— 
Hon Bill English 
: The select committees haven’t got any work. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I am surprised that the member says that. I have seen the number of bills in front of select committees. I have two that have just gone off to a committee and I think there are another four down for first reading. There will be plenty of work to keep most parties going and enough to reduce the National Party to its usual state of exhaustion over the next year.