MPs passed two bills about number twos this week - one regulating freedom camping toilets, and another creating a role to assist family court judges.
On Tuesday Parliament put aside contesting this year's budget to move two bills through their third and final readings. Both will now become law once signed off by the Governor General.
Here are a few details about each bill.
Bill one: Fixed loos for twos
The Self Contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Bill has a slightly unhelpful name. It sounds like it is about autonomous cars or unsocial busses. It is not. It requires vehicles being used for freedom camping (in some locations) to have a fixed toilet. That's 'fixed' as in bolted to the floor, rather than 'not broken'.
Until now a vehicle might be considered self-contained if it carried a portable loo - even if it was impractical to employ the toilet without first folding up the bed (personal experience) and even packing and 'over-boarding' most of the luggage.
Spending a penny on the fly will now require the higher price of a properly fixed and approved toilet.
This law is the delayed result of a slow-summer-news campaign of outrage about defecating tourists (three to four years ago). The time-lag demonstrates how long it can take to turn non-emergency demands for action into workable law. Some responses to the Bill may also indicate that by the time a law has been written in response to popular outrage, people may have forgotten what they demanded and why.
The Bill was passed with support from Labour and Te Pāti Māori. National, ACT and the Greens were opposed to the Bill (for different reasons). For National and ACT the main sticking point was the demise of portable toilets (which were the status quo when councils began complaining about excremental parking areas).
"National's happy to stand up for those responsible New Zealanders and say that there should be no difference at all between having a fixed toilet and a non-fixed toilet, because here's the stupid thing about this legislation: if you have a fixed toilet and you go camping and you don't use it, you're not breaking the law; but if you have a portable toilet in your campervan and you do use it, you are breaking the law. That's ridiculous." - Todd McLay.
National's Sam Uffindel had an easy solution. He announced an inclination to "go off and do the sneaky," crapping in the bushes.
Green opposition was a combination of unease about the desire for 'high value' tourists, antipathy to any growth in tourism, and a desire for more public toilets (something everyone was hopeful for but not a decision for central government). …