Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): This motion has been widely debated by the Business Committee—actually that's the wrong term; not widely debated but properly considered by the Business Committee. And I thank the Leader of the House for following in the footsteps of his predecessor in that role in engaging with the Business Committee early in the piece to ensure that the best programme can be put together for the year. That gives opportunity both for the Government to advance its programme and for the Opposition to speak about how that programme could be substantially enhanced.What does interest me is the fact that the Government is claiming a very busy and transformative programme which we have not seen to date. So I do look forward to next year when the Order Paper finally clears away all the excellent legislation that was brought into this House by the previous Government—legislation willingly embraced and voted for by the current Government—and we see some of the programme that has been promised for over 12 months in the form of the transformative bids that we're expecting.I am a little confused by the need still to put in the extra two days at the end of the year. We've got no trouble being here; we have no problem with the House sitting right up till that time. Most New Zealanders will be working right up until Christmas Eve so that's not unusual nor is it in any way a problem. But what I do find odd is that the Government seems unable to organise its programme in a way that would not require this extra time. I note that we've now had several extended sittings where the House has only taken about an hour on an extra day to do the business that the Government thought was going to take many many hours.Hon Kris Faafoi: Ha ha!Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The question I've got is—and Mr Faafoi laughs over there simply because he's been saying that to the Leader of the House for weeks. He's been in the Leader of the House's office saying he's unhappy about the way the House is being conducted and he's finally laughing with a great deal of joy that others are prepared to speak publicly where he of course has the muzzle of being part of the executive.We had this week extra hours set down but the House only sat for an extra hour and a half. We could have sat for five. We've got—Hon Chris Hipkins: It's because we've got such a lazy Opposition.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well there you are you see Mr Speaker. The Leader of the House calls out and says we've got a lazy Opposition. Well when the Order Paper is chocker full of the previous Government's legislation why on earth would we want to stop it? It's good legislation so why would we want to stop that?These extra two or three days this year will be filled up with bumf and rubbish because the Government is a little bit embarrassed about not coming back in the new year until 12 February. Well I tell you what: he might want to use that term lazy" for us because we support our own legislation and have no trouble getting it through the House but what will the public say about a Government that wants to wait six weeks into the year before it comes back to work?With that can we say we're quite happy for the Government to take that opprobrium and naturally we'll be supporting this motion."