KEY POINTS:
In the shadow of Labour's embarrassing failure to secure urgency on Sue Bradford's anti-smacking bill lurks another indicator of the governing party's struggle to get the numbers - Parliament's increasingly lean-looking order paper.
The legislative drought has been seized on by National as not only proof that Labour is running out of ideas, but also as evidence Labour is being stymied by its minor party allies, NZ First and United Future, when it does come up with a new initiative.
The number of Government measures on the order paper - Parliament's equivalent of an agenda - is running at half the level of a year ago. Gerry Brownlee, National's shadow leader of the House, says there is so little Government legislation of significance up for debate that Parliament is in danger of finding itself with nothing to discuss.
Of the 14 Government measures on Tuesday's order paper, two were Government notices of motion, one of which was devoted to marking the 63rd anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino. Three of the 12 bills are unlikely to go any further because the Government either no longer has the numbers to pass them or no longer wishes to proceed with them.
The remaining bills cover largely uncontentious matters - the licensing of immigration advisers, and the modernising of oaths being examples. Furthermore, most of the bills currently parked at the select committee stage are similarly uncontroversial. The suggestion that Labour is struggling to fill the previously precious time set aside for Government business briefly gained further credence when Labour devoted much of Tuesday afternoon to debating the other notice of motion.
This dealt with the $10 child tax credit which comes into effect from April 1. The Government would normally reserve such self-promotion for the free-for-all Wednesday afternoon general debate.
However, Leader of the House Michael Cullen says Labour wanted to force National to come down on one side or the other on the Government's Working for Families package. That required a debatable motion to force such a vote. Dr Cullen accepts the order paper is "a bit short", but says there is some "meaty stuff" in the pipeline. In Labour's defence, MMP and minority government may mean decades of governments force-feeding Parliament with legislation are over. Some observers of Parliament also detect Opposition parties are no longer so wedded to the traditional drag-it-out fight over every stage of a bill's progress. Legislation is making it into law more quickly.
However, the current lack of bills which are identifiably "Labour" in ideological terms lends weight to National's contention that Labour cannot get the numbers.
But how often is that happening? Because negotiations between parties are conducted in secret and Labour does not announce new legislation until it has the numbers to pass it, it is difficult to gauge how frequently Labour proposals are falling over before they see the light of day.
Dr Cullen says Labour is "not heavily constrained" by its support partners. But a lot more work has to be done on the contents of legislation before it is introduced into Parliament. "You do tend to get legislation which is less contentious as a result of that process."
In the short term, Parliament is not going to run out of agenda items. The House is in recess for most of next month. It will then be occupied with the Budget. However, if a slimmer order paper becomes the norm longer-term, Dr Cullen says the House might end up sitting less frequently.
Given Parliament provides a huge platform for the Opposition, National would not be happy about that.
