Urgency, at a snail's pace

After the Budget Debate begins, it's usual to go into urgency to progress some government bills quickly through the House, or as is the case so far this year - not so quickly.

After Ministers of Finance have delivered a Budget Statement and the party leaders have each had a crack at it, the House typically adjourns the debate over the wider budget and instead gets into some policy specifics.

It's usual to take the House into urgency on the afternoon of budget day, to progress some Government bills quickly through the House, or as was the case this year - not so quickly.

Listen to the House's report on the very slow progress under urgency to Friday evening.

The Government announced it wanted to move nine bills through a combined 27 debating stages. Some to just have first readings, and others to be passed through all stages (just awaiting the Royal assent to become law).

But 27 stages is a lot of debating to fit in between Thursday afternoon and Saturday night, when urgency must end at midnight. By Friday evening they had managed just six stages, with 21 to go. On Saturday evening they reached the last bill, with just four stages left to debate. They had however apparently skipped a bill originally listed as being debated through all stages - the Forests (Log Traders and Forestry Advisers Repeal) Amendment Bill.

It's worth noting that the pace of debating through days of urgency often speeds up, and not every bill is usually as contentious as the early ones. The least contentious or least urgent bills usually go last and sometimes pass more smoothly.

The bills agreed as being debated under urgency are:

the first reading of the Appropriation (2023/24 Supplementary Estimates) Bill

the introduction and passing through all stages of:

the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill

the Public Finance (Fines Collection Costs-Budget Measures) Amendment Bill

the Waste Minimisation (Waste Disposal Levy) Amendment Bill

the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill

the introduction, first reading, and referral to a select committee of:

the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill

the Resource Management (Extended Duration of Coastal Permits for Marine Farms) Amendment Bill

the introduction and passing through all stages of:

the Forests (Log Traders and Forestry Advisers Repeal) Amendment Bill

the Accident Compensation (Interest on Instalment Plans) Amendment Bill.

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