Business Statement

When the House resumes next week the Government intends to make progress on the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, complete the third reading of the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill, and deal with a range of other first and second readings on the Order Paper. Wednesday is set down to be a members’ day.

I signal to the Leader of the House that the Opposition is very much looking forward to the third reading of the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill, and thanks him for his good communication on the passage of that bill during the course of recent weeks. I wonder whether any of the Government bills for first reading will include the Minister of Local Government’s bill that has been signalled in the media, and whether we can expect that any bills that amend the Local Government Act will go through a full and proper select committee process, unlike some other bills that have taken on issues of representative democracy at local government level. If the Leader of the House would let us know about that, it would be useful.

The first point is that the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill will be read a third time next Thursday, so I can confirm that it will be after question time next Thursday. As to the other matters, I tell members that they will of course be dependent entirely upon how the Order Paper is formed over the next short while.