Parliament's year is rapidly nearing an end, and the Government has this week been focused on completion of three fairly major pieces of legislation.
Parliament's year is rapidly nearing an end, and the Government has this week been focused on completion of three fairly major pieces of legislation.
Eugenie Sage stands by the rationale behind a controversial clause in the Water Services Entities Bill.
The Water Services Entities Bill was recommitted to the Committee of the Whole House in order to fix a mistake that's been well canvassed by national media.
The entrenchment of an anti-privatisation clause in the Government's Three Waters legislation was subsequently flagged as departing from convention that entrenchment only be used for constitutional issues.
The MP who proposed the clause, Eugenie Sage of the Green Party, stands by the argument for it.
"This was about entrenching one clause in the Bill, not the whole Bill as some people seem who have written to me seem to think. It was one clause, and it reinforces the Green Party's commitment to public ownership of key Three Waters assets: the provision of drinking eater, waste water and storm water," Sage explained.
"We would have preferred that it wasn't debated under urgency, but as members of the National Party well know, the committee stages are the only stages where you can table and have amendments voted on. The Standing Orders indeed provide for entrenchment, provided the same majority in the House pass the provision as the SOP (Supplementary Order Paper) was seeking to entrench. That happened."
Another bill making its way through the House towards completion is the Electoral Amendment Bill which lowers the public disclosure thresholds for donations and contributions to political parties.
The Opposition is dead against this Bill, and National's Paul Goldsmith said he'd come up with a couple of good reasons why reducing the thresholds is problematic, leaving people with a stark pair of choices.
"Either New Zealanders can volunteer to give money to parties that they support, or the alternative proposition is that the State seizes that money and gives it to political parties in order for them to campaign. And the fundamental direction of this bill and the Government policy is to move more and more of the funding of political parties away from voluntary donations to compulsory acquisition by the State of money to give to political parties."
Labour's Emily Henderson pointed out the need for transparency in the democratic system could barely be more paramount right now…