As Grant posted earlier we have been in urgency. Well once Parliament has finished early because it ran out of work in the urgency motion. A bit after eight rather than ten as would happen if we were doing non urgent stuff. Except there was not a lot to debate because most of what the house dealt with was from the previous government.
Running the House is a bit of art that requires good judgement. Palmer McKinnon and Cullen did it well. Brownlee is just not in their league.
Sounds like a real fun night at the circus.
a bit like Wilson and Hunt not being in the league of Lockwood?
Okay, what was the reason the Leader of the House gave for urgency this time, given the matters dealt with were clearly discussed out already?
Second question, as a reason has to be provided, what sort of options are there for the reasons to be judged insufficient, and the house not to go into urgency?
I agree Brownlee just doesn’t have the skills to be an effective leader of the house!
Big…ego comes to mind
“I agree Brownlee just doesn’t have the skills to be an effective leader of the house!
Big…ego comes to mind”
Agreed, and just to ruin your day with a question: if you are worried about that, how do you feel about Brownlee being Minister of Energy and Resources?
… or Minister for Economic Development?
But I hear Gerry can knock up a killer pencil case.
Pencil cases could revive the economy better than the cycleway, just to get back onto urgency.
Here is some info Abie’s Ghost dug up yesterday about the time spent in urgency (out of Former Clerk of the House David McGee’s book of Parliamentary procedure).
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/10/21/a-state-of-urgency/#comments
43rd Parliament (1990-93) – 30.25% of sitting hours in urgency
44th (93-96) – 9.21%
45th (96-99) – 30.73%
46th (99-02) – 13.12%
47th (02-05) – 21.38%
Idiot / Savant has just provide this info at No right turn
http://www.norightturn.blogspot.com/
The 48th Parliament sat for a total of 1503.75 hours between 2005 and 2008. Of that time, 148.75 hours – 9.9% – were under urgency.
The 49th Parliament has sat for 545 hours since its election in 2008. Of that time, 183 hours – 33.6% – have been under urgency.
So, what is now so urgent that it requires more urgency than when Ruth Richardson was Minister of Finance?