Sittings of the House

on behalf of the Leader of the House: I move, That on its rising on Thursday, 6 November 2014, the House adjourn until Tuesday, 25 November, and on its rising on Wednesday, 10 December, the House adjourn until Tuesday, 10 February 2015, and the sitting pattern for 2015 be as follows:

February 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26;

March 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, and 31;

April 1, 2, 28, 29, and 30;

May 5, 6, 7, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, and 28;

June 2, 3, 4, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, and 30;

July 1, 2, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30;

August 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, and 27;

September 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 24;

October 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, and 22;

November 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, and 19;

December 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10.

It is a good sitting pattern, indicative of a hard-working Government and Parliament working for all New Zealanders.

I want to take this unusual step of congratulating the Leader of the House on being so efficient in getting the sitting schedule for next year out so early. I think it is actually a much better precedent for the Parliament to be determining the sitting calendar for the following year earlier on rather than in the adjournment debate right at the end of the year, which we have traditionally done. I want to just alert members to the fact that the leave that was sought and obtained earlier today, prior to question time, means that we will still have an adjournment debate at the end of the parliamentary sitting year, but we are getting this out of the way earlier. It gives members and all of the staff in the building certainty, and the ability to plan for the following year. Labour will certainly be supporting this motion.

I would like to take just a brief call to express the Greens’ support for this motion. We also thank the Leader of the House for having put this draft programme out in a timely fashion. It does assist our planning both for the end of the year and for the New Year. We look forward to the work of 2015 and we are sure that this Government will give us lots of opportunities to prove to New Zealanders the value and the importance of a well-informed, active Opposition. Thank you.

New Zealand First opposes this motion. We have hardly had an election and the National Party members want a long tea break for 6 or 7 weeks. We have got a housing crisis, we have got an export decline crisis, we have got a debt that is going up seven times, which they inherited, and they want to have a holiday and escape scrutiny in this House. They should be here all the way to 24 December. I know they are tired. They look tired. In fact, they are so tired they have run out of ideas, but there is no reason why they should have a long tea break when the public want some fundamental issues to be decided.

The National Government has an agenda of denial but New Zealand faces profound problems and a whole array of them. There are thousands of New Zealand families in caravans and in all sorts of unsatisfactory housing who would want this Parliament in the 10 days after 10 December all the way to 24 December to make it a priority. But no, no, the National Party members want to go and have a long holiday. Mind you, it is not the kind of thing they think the ordinary workers should get. It is not the kind of thing they want the middle class to get.

💬 Tim Macindoe: Talk to your whip.

Oh, here we go. No, no, unlike the National Party, we do not have a little convenient committee to decide what is going on. The rather excited gentleman, who after all this time in Parliament has got a job as the whip—

💬 Tim Macindoe: Go on—insult me. Don’t deal with the issue. That’s your usual style.

Well, I struck a nerve, obviously. Can you hear that noise? It is the greatest and longest speech he has ever made! And I can see why he cannot bear the consequences. That is the kind of Stasi behaviour we expect from National today. In short, if we do not take what he recommends, he gets upset. Where does he sit in this Parliament? Well, he has finally got to the whips’ office—and that is about as far as he will go. They in National want a prolonged holiday. The timetable for parliamentary business, as set out in the motion, is in many respects an insult to hard-working New Zealanders who send us here to do our job; not to have long, interminable holidays. But, you see, that is the way National organises things. Everybody but four in the National Government now has a job. Everyone but four now has a job.

As for consultation, did it consult any other party about being a chair of a select committee? A deputy chair? Not one job! This is so unique. This is so unique. I can recall when National would give other parties a chance to chair committees, like the Regulations Review Committee and others. But you see the hysteria from the backbench, having been here 5 minutes—and most of them will last only that long. They will be gone so fast we will not see them for dust and small pebbles. But there they are, shouting like the storm troopers that they are, trying to complain about someone asking for longer, harder working hours for MPs. I know what their wont is. Most of these guys are Tea Party - type operators. That is how they got here. Oh, yes, they did. Oh, yes, they did. I can name the people across here who tea-partied their way into this Parliament. Whilst people like Hutchison were doing a great job in their electorate, they were carefully undermining him to the extent that one day he turned around and lost his seat. Not just one, but over and over again.

Now I want to know why the issue of massive debt is not going to be debated for the rest of this year. The man who is looking in the mirror over there, Simon O’Connor, is from Tāmaki. Remember, Tāmaki used to have a dynamic member called Muldoon. Look what they have got now. They went from the sublime to the ridiculous. And he has gone as far as he will ever go. He has been made the chair of a select committee. Gentlemen at the back here, be very careful here—

💬 Simon O’Connor: More votes than your whole party put together.

These words are to help you. Look, they are here for your survival. Do not listen to what these guys are saying over there. They want to go home so that you cannot ask any more questions at caucus. They want to run things by Cabinet. That is why New Zealand First says this motion should be rejected. We should be here all the way to 24 December 2014, because we face in social and economic areas the greatest crisis we have in modern times.

💬 Hon Member: Name your MPs.

Name our MPs? I do not have to name my MPs.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. We in the Māori Party are grateful for the consultation that we have had and for our participation in the meetings when all of these matters were discussed by all of the parties who were present at the time. We are grateful that the recognition has been given to the 100th anniversary of the war next year. In fact, we are going to have a 4-week sitting term, you will notice, from March all the way through to April.

I am also grateful that I am able to take the advice of the National Government in supporting me to be the deputy chair of the Māori Affairs Committee. However, given that I am an independent person and have my right to free thinking, in the spirit of kotahitanga I was quite happy to concede that position to the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, given the way the Māori Affairs Committee has worked in the past.

I would just like to note that we support this motion and we are happily looking forward to a hard-working term, because we work very hard in the Māori Party—[Interruption] Yes, that is right—I have just started and have not had a break yet. I have been home once in 3 weeks, and my 3-year-old fell asleep on top of me. That is the world I have lived in for the last—how old am I now—44 years, thank you very much. Anyway, we are grateful to be working hard no matter whether we are sitting here or in adjournment because that is just how we roll. Thank you.