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Labour Votes Urgency For Over 20 New Amendments

The Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House) moved for a vote that urgency be accorded for over 20 amendments and additions laws, last Tuesday. The motion passed with Labour holding sufficient seats at 64 Ayes Labour, against all other voting parties in parliament, including the Green Party of Aotearoa NZ, voting 55 Noes.

The motion for urgency allows a number of amendments to existing bills to be passed without the beneficial scrutiny of select committees, limiting consultation and review.

Initial analysis does not provide clarity for the reasons no other party supported this motion. Moreover, there remains the possibility that Labour is attempting to pass new legislation with as little scrutiny as possible.

It is not clear why urgency would be the Labour leadership preference, as numerous proposed amendments could conceivably impact New Zealand for years to come, and would benefit from additional review.

Moreover, some of the amendments motioned for urgency remain contentious among the general populace of New Zealand, with recent polls indicating there are groups against a number of the proposed law changes.

Growing concern has also been voiced by political parties around proposed Bills such as the Arms (Licence Holders' Applications for New Licences) Amendment Bill, and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill.

Additionally, there are bills included in this urgency motion that have received little public attention, including the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill.

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Where-by even the Green Party would presumably have supported urgency to important legislation such as the Climate Change Response (Extension of Penalty Transition for Forestry…) Amendment Bill -- even the Green Party did NOT vote for this urgency motion.

For reasons that have remained unclear, the Labour leadership are attempting to pass substantive numbers of new laws as quickly as possible.

Moreover, as the Labour government holds sufficient votes in-and-of-itself to pass ALL of these motions without cooperation or agreement with other Parties, it is difficult to identify the reasoning behind the specific need for urgency.

Ordinarily, motions would include positive votes from Parties that are congruent with Government goals and planning. In this instance, no other Parties voted for the motion, indicative of the possibility these law changes are driven entirely by Labour.

Fundamentally, the expansive use of urgency, combined with no additional Party support, places the result of each of these new legislative amendments on the shoulders of the Labour government. Their future success or failure, whether appropriate or not, is inherently tied to the existing Labour leadership.

As trend analysis has demonstrated from recent New Zealand elections, and elections in the United States, there is a strong underlying voter desire for solutions based candidates focused on economic and social stability.

In historical terms, trend analysis identified that when governments over-legislate (prioritise party ideology over real-world results), they incur losses at subsequent elections due to voter cynicism and confidence erosion.

Moreover, over-legislating has been shown to introduce unforeseen ramifications both politically and economically that arise during Law implementation stages.

Introducing such a volume of new amendments across a wide spectrum of economic and social environments may also cause an increasing disconnect between government policies and the experiences of businesses and constituents.

Research has indicated that incumbent government disconnect, creating policies that fail to address real-world problems, increases by a margin for each additional year they retain power.

The most recent Parliamentary motion, passed under 64 Labour votes, is available for review on the parliamentary website HANSARD documentation:

Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House): I move, That urgency be accorded the committee stage of the Water Services Entities Bill; the passing through all stages of the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Amendment Bill, the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill (No 2), the Social Security (Accommodation Supplement) Amendment Bill, and the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Extension of Act and Reduction of Powers) Amendment Bill; the passing through of the remaining stages of the Dairy Industry Restructuring (Fonterra Capital Restructuring) Amendment Bill, the Climate Change Response (Extension of Penalty Transition for Forestry Activities with Low Volume Emissions Liabilities) Amendment Bill, the Arms (Licence Holders' Applications for New Licences) Amendment Bill, and the Companies (Levies) Amendment Bill; the first readings and referral to select committee of the Grocery Industry Competition Bill and the Fuel Industry Amendment Bill; the introduction and first readings and referral to select committee of the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill; the first reading and referral to select committee of the Legal Services Amendment Bill; the introduction, first reading, and referral to select committee of the Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) Amendment Bill; the first reading and referral to select committee of the Health and Safety at Work (Health and Safety Representatives and Committees) Amendment Bill; the third readings of the Security Information in Proceedings Bill, the Security Information in Proceedings (Repeals and Amendments) Bill, the Māori Purposes Bill, the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill, and the Statutes Amendment Bill; and the passing through of the remaining stages of the Organic Products and Production Bill, the Natural Hazards Insurance Bill, the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill, and the Civil Aviation Bill.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: review the explicit motion requested by Hon CHRIS HIPKINS go directly to the Parliament page:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20221122_20221122_32

Trend Analysis Network is a think tank based in New Zealand created to identify and publish analytical results of future trends in politics, society, and economics.

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