Urgency 
Urgency 
[Volume:652;Page:1267] 
Urgency 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: 
 I move  
That the House afford urgency to the continued first reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill the second reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill and items Nos 1 2 and 3 on the Order Paper. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is a question of asking you for a ruling as to whether the motion that has just been moved was one that was agreed to within the original urgency motion. We are now currently in urgency. I cannot remember that motion being on the list and if that is not the case we have to come out of urgency— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Which we have done. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am sorry; I thought we had one other item in the original motion. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I will just respond to the member. It is not for the Speaker to have knowledge or be part of any agreements that are organised so it is not for me to rule on that matter. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No Mr Assistant Speaker I am not— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Hang on I am on my feet. It is a matter of process. The Leader of the House has sought to go out of urgency. He is now moving another motion. It is not for me to respond as to whether there is any agreement on that within the House. The Leader of the House may wish to clarify that. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: 
 In moving the motion earlier it was my mistake that I left out two very important words. The consequence of that is that the House may end up doing considerable extra time next week. There is a general understanding that we will be sitting until 10 o’clock tonight so I took the step of moving a motion to adjourn the previous debate. We have now adjourned it; we are in normal House time. I am now moving urgency according to the motion that I have just moved. It is different from the previous one so as to satisfy the requirements of the Standing Orders. That is essentially the situation we are in. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 That is the very point that I was making. The fact that we have adjourned a particular debate when we have another debate already set down and agreed to by the House under urgency does not mean that we can then move to another urgency motion. The proper thing to do is to deal with the next matter that the House has already agreed that urgency be accorded to. That is the next order of business not this one here. We have to go to that matter we have to deal with it and then we have to come back to this motion. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: My understanding is and I rule that what has happened is quite in order. The Leader of the House has sought to go out of urgency whereupon the Government can indicate at any time that it does not wish to continue with the urgency. It has now moved another motion on which we will put the vote. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Senior Whip—Labour) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is a new point of order. In order for the Government to get the House sitting hours extended this evening from 7.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. the Government is required to advise the Business Committee of going into urgency and the Government did that at its second attempt at the meeting on Tuesday. We have had a motion for urgency that was voted on for the House to go into urgency. The Leader of the House has now broken that and I cannot see how he can then try to create a second round of urgency when that was not advised to the Business Committee at the meeting held earlier in the week. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: It’s the same sitting day. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: The Leader of the House interjected but he has adjourned the previous urgency motion that was before the House—the agreement that was before the Business Committee. My second point—to seek information from the Leader of the House—is that he has now moved an additional motion that adds an extra order of the day to those he advised in his previous motion which would clearly take the House beyond 10 o’clock this evening to a Friday morning sitting. Can he give the House some assurance or advice about what his sitting programme is because with each additional urgency motion he is adding more work for the House and it would be impossible to get it all done? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I will hear from Mr Brownlee and that may well satisfy your point of order. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: This situation is caused by a mistake on my part. I have admitted that to the House. I left two important words out of the motion and there is no intention that the House should sit beyond 10 o’clock this evening under urgency. The motion that I just mentioned was rather due to the fact that the House appears to be making greater progress than was previously anticipated. But if the member wishes me to pare things back then there is another procedure that we might go through. This is the way to achieve the outcome that was previously notified. I make the point that urgency was notified for this day and nothing has changed in that regard. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: I think it does go back somewhat to the original point that I was trying to make which is that when the House has taken urgency it takes urgency for a particular set of business and other business cannot be included while that urgency is occurring. It appears to me that what has happened here is that when we have not completed the original urgency—merely adjourning a particular debate as the member has done and is able to do—we go on to the next business of the original urgency motion. We are not in a position under the original urgency motion to take another motion that is not within what was set down to the House and agreed to by the House. I accept that the Leader of the House has made a mistake and is trying to get out of it. As a Government whip for a number of years I know that mistake has been made in the past and is a serious one. Frankly my memory is that when one makes a mistake like that one is essentially stuffed. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: That is not really a part of the point of order. We are not currently in urgency. It is the Government’s prerogative to move whatever motion it likes and if members have displeasure at that they can vote accordingly. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: How can we know that we’re not in urgency Mr Speaker? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Because we took a motion to go out of urgency. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No we did not. 
Hon Annette King 
: We did not. We adjourned the debate. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: We adjourned the debate. That doesn’t take us out of urgency. It takes us to the next business. Adjourning a debate takes you to the next business under urgency. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I ask members to wait just one moment while I take some advice. We are probably breaking new ground here but when the Government moves to adjourn the debate it is in effect breaking the urgency. Therefore the other motion is in order. We will now put the motion. The question is that the motion— 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I know that you are getting unhappy but one thing I have done on a number of occasions as a Minister and that I have organised to be done in the past as a whip is the adjournment of a debate under urgency. It can be done in two ways. It can be adjourned and set down for further consideration presently and it stays within the urgency motion or one can do as the Leader of the House has done now which has the effect of the House being unable to consider that matter under the current urgency motion. But quite often there have been 10 or 15 other matters for which urgency has been accorded. In this case there is only one further matter for which urgency has been accorded and what happens is that when we abandon one matter we go on to the next. Urgency is not currently breached. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Let me bring to the House’s attention Speaker’s ruling 12/3. It quite clearly sets out that the urgency is broken so I will put the motion. The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those who are of that opinion will say Aye— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No no. That does not say that at all. Speaker’s ruling 12/3 is about third readings coming back from a committee. That is nonsense. Speaker’s ruling 12/3 has nothing to do with that. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: No I will put the motion. I have ruled. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It says “Where bills are reported back … from committee”. There is no bill reported back from a committee in this case. That cannot possibly be correct. You may be able to find another Speaker’s ruling that heads in that direction but ruling 12/3 does not do that. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I am sorry; it is Speaker’s ruling 12/5. The question is that the motion be agreed to. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. What motion are we voting on now? Can the member move it again? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Would the member restate the motion? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: 
 I move  
That the House accord urgency to the first reading and the second reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill and Government orders Nos 1 and 2. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Senior Whip—Labour) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I make two points. First the Leader of the House has now given us a different motion from the one he gave to the House before we got into this little debate. Second I want to be clear what the motion was about given that the Leader of the House was not sure himself. He is required to advise the House why urgency is required. But the main point is that he has shifted the business within 10 minutes of his earlier motion in terms of what we are meant to be in urgency about. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: That point is correct. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: 
 Yes it is true. I listened to the pleadings of Opposition members who do not want to be here for additional hours and thought we had better drop one item off. If they want me to put one item back on then certainly I will do so. The reason for the urgency is that we see the Electoral Amendment Bill as being extremely important to the Government’s programme. We want it to be passed in 100 days. The motion affords the opportunity for that. The Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill is one that is very important also and we want that to be progressed. The Sentencing (Offender Levy) Amendment Bill provides that those who commit crimes are levied by $50 for a victims’ fund. We think that is very important and we want that to be debated as well. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: We have had an explanation about urgency being broken we have had an explanation from the Minister as to why the urgency is required and I will now put the motion. 
A party vote was called for on the question  
That the House accord urgency to the first reading and the second reading of the Electoral Amendment Bill and Government orders Nos 1 and 2. 
Ayes 69 
New Zealand National 58; ACT New Zealand 5; Maori Party 5 United Future 1. 
Noes 53 
New Zealand Labour 43; Green Party 9; Progressive 1. 
Motion agreed to.