Business Statement

When the House resumes on Tuesday, it is the Government’s intention to make progress on the Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2), the Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Bill, the New Organisms and Other Matters Bill, the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill, and the Fair Trading Amendment Bill (No 3).

Noting that the Order Paper is just as long now as it was at the start of the year, and that considerable amounts of legislation are due to come out of select committees, can the Leader of the House indicate to us whether we are likely to see some extended hours in the form of urgency during this 4-week sitting block, and also whether the current order of the Order Paper is the Government’s priority for its legislation?

I notice that there are now more private and local orders of the day than Government orders of the day, which is a rather remarkable achievement on the part of the Opposition. In answer to the latter part of the member’s question, no, there is no intention to take urgency for matters on the Order Paper.