The plan for Parliament’s week depends on what the members of the Business Committee decide on Tuesday afternoon.
The Business Committee is a cross-party group of senior MPs that meet to coordinate the business of the House, and which find compromise more often than you might expect.
At issue is whether most political parties can agree to a very rapid consideration of the Government’s cyclone recovery legislation or not. If they don’t agree the Government will resort to Urgency and the current plan for the week will be abandoned.
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Michael Woodhouse in action during hearings of the Standing Orders Committee. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
If they agree, things less crucial to the Government will also get a look-in. If not, it's likely the week's schedule will get upended.
The House got a run-down on the options from the Shadow Leader of the House, National Party MP Michael Woodhouse.
“If the Business Committee agrees, formal urgency won't be moved this evening. And that will mean that Parliament can have its first Members’ Day. Because of course, if the Government moves urgency tonight then Wednesday is a government day and Members’ Day will disappear.”
Member’s Day’s are important for opposition MPs and any back-bencher. They are the day (every other sitting Wednesday) when non-ministers' ideas get debated rather than government bills.
Michael Woodhouse describes the compromise the Business Committee is likely to consider:
“So the plan, at this stage, is to have the first reading of [the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill] on the Tuesday; send it to select committee for an intense day of submissions and considerations with the technical experts, …and one or two of the councils that have been most affected by the cyclone; speedily report that back to the House on Thursday, and then ...pass it through remaining stages on Thursday afternoon.”
Whoosh! That would mean a one-day select committee process and a dash through the final three stages during Parliament’s pretty tight Thursday afternoon sitting.
You might think opposition parties wouldn’t be on board with such a condensed consideration, but it is a lot better than the likely alternative. If the Government resort to using formal urgency, that would omit the select committee process entirely, and oblate all other business (ahem, Members’ Day), until the urgency is lifted, usually when the bill is passed.
Also, presumably most (or all) political parties would prefer to be seen as supportive of quick responses to recent weather disasters.
By the way, not everyone has to agree.
The Business Committee works on the basis of “near unanimity” (as determined by the Speaker, who chairs the meetings). Practically that means that one or two small parties can object but get ignored, but definitely both the major parties need to be on board, which they appear to be.