Brownlee unrepentant about Government's use of urgency

Gerry Brownlee. Photo / Supplied

Since the National Government came into power in December 2008, it has used urgency for 331.5 hours - nearly double the time the former Labour Government sat under urgency in its full first term.

Politicians will be stuck in Parliament until tomorrow afternoon, as the Government uses urgency in the pre-Christmas rush. That has prompted Labour and the Green Party to complain about its excessive use and bad management resulting in an "end-of-year shambles".

The Government can call urgency to force Parliament to sit beyond its usual hours of 2pm to 10pm, allowing it to pass legislation more quickly and sometimes without select committee scrutiny. It cannot go beyond midnight on a Saturday.

Labour's Darren Hughes said National was using urgency excessively, despite justifying its earlier use by saying it would prevent the end-of-year rush.

Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee defended it, saying Mr Hughes should go back and look at Labour's own record before he got "sulky".

"It's not unusual to use urgency at this time of year at all. The reality is we haven't used urgency excessively this year at all."

Office of the Clerk figures show that in the two years since National came into Government in December 2008, Parliament has sat under urgency for 331 hours - just over one quarter of the time the House was in session.

By comparison, in its first full term from 1999 to 2002, the former Labour Government used urgency for 192.5 hours - about 13 per cent of the time.

That increased to 385 hours from 2002 to 2005 and dropped again to 149 hours from 2005 to 2008.

The National Government went into urgency 15 times in its first full year in power in 2009 - under Labour, the most times urgency was used was nine in 2000 - its first full year in power after nine years of National.

There are 12 bills in the urgency motion, including the new Security Intelligence Service Bill, Ngati Apa's Treaty settlement, financial help for leaky home owners, taxation, biosecurity, customs and education bills.

Mr Hughes said that when Labour objected yesterday, Mr Brownlee claimed MPs should do a "few days of hard yakka" before they left on a long break.

"That's not the point. The point is New Zealanders would rather see legislation passed sensibly and with due consideration, not in a rush like this."

HOW THEY COMPARE
Number of hours spent in urgency by parliamentary term:

National:
* Dec 2008-Dec 2010 (part term): 331 hrs 32 mins, 27 per cent of all sitting hours.

Labour:
* Nov 2005-Oct 2008: 148 hrs 42 mins, 10 per cent of all sitting hours.

* Aug 2002-Aug 2005: 384 hrs 59 mins, 21 per cent of all sitting hours.

* Dec 1999-June 2002: 192 hrs 34 mins, 13 per cent of all sitting hours.