Business Statement

Next week in the House, priority will be given to the second reading of the Land Transport Management Bill, after which the Government will be moving an urgency motion. The following bills will be included in the urgency motion, for their respective remaining stages: the Copyright (Parallel Importation of Film and Onus of Proof) Amendment Bill, the Retirement Villages Bill, the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill, the Counter-Terrorism Bill, the New Zealand Horticulture Export Authority Amendment Bill (No 2), the Wine Bill, the Criminal Justice Amendment Bill (No 7), and the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care) Bill.

I thank the Leader of the House for that outline of next week’s programme. I note that the urgency motion appears to be quite light, and there is little in it to suggest it needs to be done urgently. Can the Leader of the House give us an assurance that question time will occur on Wednesday and Thursday of next week? I note that question time has been difficult for the Government of late; it is, of course, the Opposition’s chance to probe the Government on its programme.

I thank the member for his comment that the programme looks quite light. I am sure, in that respect, there therefore should be no difficulty in arriving at an understanding about the completion of that business, in return for having oral questions on Wednesday and Thursday.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. If the two old parties are going to have that conversation, then let me make it clear to the Leader of the House that under previous Governments there has been an understanding that there would be question time. The ACT party will most certainly not agree to have our debates guillotined just for question time. A true Parliament, supported by a decent Opposition, would insist that in return for an urgency motion there would be question time; so it is really Mr Dunne, is it not?

💬 Mr SPEAKER: No, that is not a point of order. It is a statement made to the House.