Water, coastlines, and corrections: Parliament’s committee stage this week

It's not uncommon for a Committee of the Whole House to need several sittings to consider a bill. With three government bills under consideration by the Committee this week, most of Parliament's sitting time will be devoted to this process.

The Committee of the Whole House (CWH) provides members with the opportunity to delve into the finer details of a proposed bill. Members can examine the nitty gritty details, ask questions of the minister in charge, and suggest further amendments.

This committee is different to the Select Committees that also look at the details of bills. Those committees are specialist topic subcommittees, while the CWH can include every MP and takes place in the debating chamber.

While CWH speeches are limited in time, there is no overall limit for the duration of the committee stage. It can take minutes or days. As long as fresh ideas and arguments are being offered, the committee can continue. This relative flexibility can lend well to opposition tactics of delaying a bill's passing. If you follow American politics, you may have heard variations on this strategy referred to as filibustering.

The presiding officer in the chamber, who (during this stage) is always a Deputy or Assistant Speaker, will be looking out for this. They even have special forms to help them keep track of the progress of questions and topics.

Bills going through committee this week

First up, the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. This is part two of the three pronged legislative water reforms dubbed "Local Water Done Well" - which is the Government's replacement for the previous government's three waters approach to easing local infrastructure costs.

The second bill is the Resource Management (Extended Duration of Coastal Permits for Marine Farms) Amendment Bill, which has particularly rustled feathers among ecologists and māori. As the name suggests, aquaculture projects (like mussel and oyster farms), will receive extensions on their permits to operate, up to the year 2050.

And finally, the Corrections Amendment Bill, which was first introduced by the previous Labour Government. In a nutshell, it gives corrections staff more power to keep themselves and prisoners safe. You couldn't be blamed for assuming that given the cross-party collaboration on this bill, the committee session would be pretty straightforward. Alas, the government chose to exclude Section 6A, which related to the Treaty of Waitangi. This became a focus of opposition attack during Wednesday's committee sitting.

To hear more about the bills going through committee this week, and what was said in the House, listen to the audio above…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details