New Zealand Parliament has agreed to hold hybrid sittings of the House of Representatives.

The Business Committee has determined that the House of Representatives may sit with remote participation from 1 March 2022. This follows a sessional order agreed by the House on 17 February 2022.

In a hybrid sitting, the House will continue to sit in the debating chamber in Wellington. Some Members of Parliament will be physically distanced within the debating chamber, while others will join remotely from across Aotearoa New Zealand and be displayed on screens within the chamber.

“During this pandemic, our Parliament has adapted to new ways of working to ensure we continue carrying out our role for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand”, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Trevor Mallard said.

“Previously, we have limited how many MPs can be in the Chamber at Parliament for everyone’s safety. Now, we can safely have all 120 MPs together in the “virtual” Chamber, just in a different way.”

Holding hybrid sittings ensures that while the omicron variant is present in the community, MPs can reduce the spread by participating remotely, instead of travelling to Wellington.

The hybrid model has been through rigorous development and testing by the Office of the Clerk, but, as with any new system, the first stages will be a work in progress.

“Over the course of this pandemic, our Parliament has been at the forefront internationally of adapting ways of working – such as holding a virtual select committees and adapting our rules to enable us to work better in the pandemic environment,” Trevor Mallard said.

“Now, it will be joining the increasing number of legislatures around the world that have adapted virtual models they can use should traditional sittings not be able to go ahead”

The sessional order that enables hybrid sittings lasts until the end of this current term of Parliament.

Hybrid sittings are one of the ways New Zealand Parliament is working to keep its members and staff safe. Each party caucus is also taking measures, including dividing into teams and reducing physical meetings, and parliamentary staff who can do so have been asked to work remotely.

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