Roy Heather: Sittings of the House 
Roy Heather: Sittings of the House 
[Volume:628;Page:232] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I rose to my feet before my colleague. [ 
Interruption 
] That is a debatable point. As I read the Standing Orders they state that the first person to get up on his or her feet to seek the call gets the call. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I thank the member for raising that. It is possible that the colours she is wearing are more easily seen. I call Heather Roy. 
HEATHER ROY 
: I would have deferred to my colleague Mr Henare who is obviously very keen to get back into the cut and thrust. Unfortunately he will have only 87 days next year to do that. I will take my time first but I will be brief. 
I agree entirely with what Mr Simon Power had to say about this soft programme. It is indeed a very light legislative programme. Dr Cullen said—in what I expect he thought we would consider to be a very reasonable manner—that it takes us back to what the House should be doing. ACT New Zealand will—to some people’s surprise I am sure—be supporting this motion because 87 days is infinitely better than having more days when the Government can do damage. It is much better to have less Government. Less Government as we know is good Government. So although I agree entirely with the National Party’s arguments for denying this Government motion ACT New Zealand will be supporting it. We think less damage can be done in the fewer days that we will sitting than could be done if we had the number of days that we had in the last two Parliaments. 
This is a Government with no ideas and no vision and that was blatantly evident in the Speech from the Throne. This soft programme does in fact highlight the brittle nature of this minority Government’s standing. We think New Zealand First will not be able to be relied upon to support the Government. [ 
Interruption 
] Well that party has supported the Government and has an agreement with it. In fact it is agreeing with the proposed number of days the House should sit. That is entirely because that party knows that it will be opposing the Government and that the Government will not be able to rely on that party’s support for many things. 
Dr Cullen also cast what I felt was a terrible slur on select committees. He said that members should be well aware that despite the fact there would be a lighter legislative programme select committees should expect to work through adjournments. Well what exactly does he think those select committees will be doing? There will not be any legislation to go before the select committees. 
Simon Power 
: They are going to be doing inquiries. 
HEATHER ROY 
: That is right. The enthusiastic Opposition in this Parliament will be beavering away on inquiries because there will not be anything much in the way of legislation coming before the select committees. What exactly will there be to be supported by New Zealand First or United Future which has said that it will support the Government? 
Less government is good government and for that reason ACT New Zealand will support the lighter number of days. Of course it is an indictment on this Government that it will not be able to get through the House the legislation that it would like to get through. It begs the question as to quite why Labour fought so hard to be in Government in the first place. So this soft programme is something that New Zealanders should watch out for; they should watch out for the light legislative programme that we will have not just for the rest of this year and next year—we are debating here the dates for 2005 and 2006—but for the rest of this term if this Government manages to reach as far as that. To have only 87 days in 2006 is shameful but it may be that it is for the good of the country that that is all we have. 
I come back to my comment on select committees. The chair of the Health Committee in the last Parliament is here and she will be able to verify for me that the Health Committee worked extraordinarily hard in the last term. We sat in most adjournments. Unfortunately I am not on the Health Committee this time; I am on the Social Services Committee. But this time the Health Committee can rest assured that it will not have to sit in adjournments like we did unless— 
Steve Chadwick 
: We’ll work hard in Social Services. 
HEATHER ROY 
: The members of the Social Services Committee will be working hard; the member for Rotorua is quite correct. I guess that the committees that do have a majority of Opposition members on them will be working hard in the adjournments I am sure hearing those inquiries that Mr Power has pointed out.