An excellent year in the House

  • Gerry Brownlee
Leader of the House

Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee says the Government is very pleased with its busy and productive legislative year, which ended with Parliament’s adjournment this afternoon.

“The House sat for three fewer days this year, but passed more legislation,” Mr Brownlee says.

“We saw a 45 per cent increase in Government bills passing their third reading and becoming law, with 145 bills passed, up from 99 in 2012.

“Another 57 Government bills passed their first reading and were sent to select committee, compared to 66 in 2012, and 67 Government bills received their second reading, compared to 56 in 2012.

“A continuing priority for the Government is the settlement of Treaty grievances, a process being superbly led by the Minister for Treaty Settlements Christopher Finlayson.

“This year eight settlement bills were sent to a select committee, and two passed their third reading into law.

“Parliament’s Business Committee has enabled extended hours to progress Treaty Legislation on five occasions this year and the Government has made use of the extended hours provisions on nine occasions.

“I’m very encouraged by the enhanced importance the Business Committee plays in organising Parliament’s business and I want to thank all members of the committee for their work.

“Parliament sat for 31 weeks in 2013; there were 90 question times with Ministers answering 1059 oral questions and thousands more supplementary questions.

“There were four bouts of urgency for a total of 93 hours out of the 596 hours the house sat for during 2013.

“Over 41 per cent more written questions were asked this year, rising to 16,946 from 11,899 in 2012.

“More papers were presented this year – 1330 compared to 1222

“Oral questions answered were similar to 2012, with 1059 in 2013 compared to 1100 the previous year.”