Photo: VNP/Louis Collins
MPs may well be cranky after debates under urgency continued until about 1.40am this morning – resuming again at 9am.
The House continues a packed agenda as the government tries to clear through legislation before the end of the year.
When Parliament is under urgency, sittings usually conclude at midnight.
But when amendments are being voted on in the Committee of the Whole House stage of a bill, the session cannot stop until the amendments have been dealt with.
The opposition putting forward more than 200 amendments on the Electoral Amendment Act – which makes several changes to election rules – was therefore what kept MPs going into the early hours.
Labour’s Greg O’Connor was in the Speaker’s chair and patiently kept things running.
“No doubt to the great disappointment of the house, the time has come for me to leave the chair. The house will resume at 9am tomorrow,” he said.
The remaining pieces of legislation on Friday also includes pushing a climate targets bill through all stages – a process that will take significant time – as well as changes to overseas investment national interest tests, and a re-committal of the committee stage of a bill adding two extra judges.
If not all dealt with, sittings will continue on Saturday – potentially until midnight – or whenever voting on amendments concludes.
Urgent sittings this week have seen the government extend RMA consents, backtrack on controversial changes to the fast-track regime, and pass changes to the rules for pig farming.
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