The new Parliament has spent most of its existence under urgency. What is that, and why use it?
New Zealand's 54th Parliament first met in December last year. Since its first (largely ceremonial) opening week Parliament has sat on 16 days. On 11 of those days 'urgency' has replaced the usual rules.
The five days when urgency wasn't accorded included four Thursdays (which are short days), and one Members' Wednesday. There has been time for just one full Members' Day so far in seven weeks (plus a couple of hours on a Thursday). Members' Days (when non-government bills get debated), usually happen every other week.
'Railroading the House'
If you've been following Parliament you will have noticed that opposition MPs are getting increasingly tetchy about just how much urgency is being used, and for what.
James Shaw on Thursday last week argued that urgency had been used so overwhelmingly that its use needed to be debated in the House.
"By my count, the Government has put 16 bills through urgency and one item of Government business not through urgency. So recognising your point about the accumulation, there has to be a point at which we're able to debate whether it's appropriate for a ratio of 16 urgent items to one to go through the House, because the Government has the majority and is essentially railroading the House. We're at the point now where they can't argue that just because there was an election means that they can overturn parliamentary democracy."
James Shaw's count may well be better than mine. My count is 14 bills passed in 7 weeks using urgency. Most of them passed under urgency through all stages and the rest under urgency except for the third reading. None of those bills have been sent to select committee.
That amount of urgency is not normal.
By comparison - in a study from Victoria University of Wellington of 24 years of New Zealand's parliament (from 1987 until 2010), the average number of bills passed through all stages under urgency was 10. That's 10 per Parliament! So we've roughly hit that average in seven weeks with more than 90 percent of the Parliament yet to go.
James Shaw in the House.
Urgency is not a sin
Urgency isn't always bad. It is not some cosmic sin. It is there as an option in Parliament's rules because there are frequently good reasons for it. Like fixing mistakes in legislation.
It is not unusual for Parliament to quickly pass a bill to fix a newly found flaw in recently passed law. Ironically those mistakes do seem more likely to result from legislation passed under urgency…