Business Statement

When the House resumes next week the Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill will be read a third time. The House will also consider the Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill and other bills on the Order Paper. Wednesday will be a members’ day.

I wonder whether the Leader of the House could indicate which select committee the Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill is likely to go to for consideration, and whether the Infrastructure Bill is likely to receive its third reading next week. The Infrastructure Bill seems to be taking quite a long time to move through Parliament, and we were operating under the assumption that it was part of the Government’s step change programme for the economy. I wonder whether the Leader of the House could let us know whether the third reading of that bill is scheduled for next week. Finally, I have an early question about the House sitting programme for 2011, and that is whether he has begun work on it, because it appears that the only area where he is indeed closing the gap with Australia is in terms of the number of House sitting days of the two Parliaments on either side of the Tasman.

Going in reverse order, I will let the member know how things are going in due course. Second, the Infrastructure Bill, of course, is available for third reading, and will be read a third time in due course, but the Government is making such extraordinary progress in advancing infrastructure throughout New Zealand that the urgency around that bill is not quite what it was just 18 months ago when the economy was found to be in such desperate straits. Finally, the Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill will be sent to the special select committee considering other constitutional bills at this time.