MPs using cellphones and Twitter to beat the boredom

MPs their weekends rudely interrupted when Parliament sat under urgency yesterday, costing taxpayers an estimated tens of thousands of dollars.

The rare Saturday sitting was held to deal with Labour's attempts to delay the passing of the Government's bill to set up the Auckland Supercity.

Although it was the second Saturday sitting in five months, Parliamentary Services spokesman Warren Inkster thought the previous weekend session was held around 2000.

MPs had already sat until the early hours of Saturday, as Labour tabled thousands of amendments to the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill in a classic case of what's known in political circles as filibustering.

The marathon debate finally came to a close at 9.40pm last night amidst noisy debate and arguments about Parliament's procedure.

Among the more trivial items heard on Friday were proposals to change the new organisation's name to the Funsized Council.

Inkster said working out the cost of Parliament sitting under urgency was not feasible, but Local Government Minister Rodney Hide said administrative costs would run to tens of thousands of dollars.

Assistant Speaker Rick Barker spent part of yesterday in charge of the House, and attempted to ease the boredom by suggesting members tell funny anecdotes to pass the time.

They didn't take him up but had other means of distracting themselves.

An impassioned speech by Hone Harawira - the Maori Party's only member to attend after Tariana Turia stormed out in frustration at Labour's stalling on Friday - failed to tempt National's Judith Collins to look up from her newspaper.

BlackBerries and cellphones were in constant use and Labour's Moana Mackey updated her Twitter site with a commentary of the proceedings, apologising for spelling mistakes.

After being spotted texting on Parliament TV, Labour Chief Whip Darren Hughes responded to the Herald on Sunday's text request promptly - by text of course - informing us that only three-quarters of a party's MPs had to be in the House for voting at full numbers to be allowed.

John Key and Phil Goff managed to get out of the Saturday session, with the Prime Minister attending a National Party conference in Tauranga. The Labour leader and his press secretaries didn't respond to requests for information about his movements.

Other MPs who avoided the Saturday sitting included Chris Carter, who was door knocking in his role as Mt Albert by-election candidate David Shearer's minder, and Parekura Horomia, who said he'd be joining the House in the evening upon his return from an official engagement in Hawke's Bay.

There were many empty seats on National's side of the House. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English insisted he was in the building when called by the Herald on Sunday, but, judging by Parliament TV, was clearly spending a lot of time in his office.

Labour list MP Raymond Huo asked why National's two Asian MPs, Pansy Wong and Melissa Lee, were not in the House when the issue of ethnic representation was being debated.

Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee said Labour's numbers dwindled as the day progressed.

* Social networking under urgency

Darren Hughes (Labour):

8.30am On the way back to Parliament. Nats-Act ramming through Supercity bill. They complain about us being a good Opposition - "It's not fair!"

Annette King (Labour)

12.27pm Gungho approach of National party towards debating destruction of AK is muted today - the spirited party they had last night to blame?

Moana Mackey (Labour)

2.24pm Labour wanted a seperate part for Maori representation but the clerk wouldn't allow it. 2.25pm and yes i know i cant spell

Catherine Delahunty (Greens):

5.33pm Just heading into the house to help block the ak Supercity bill we need many voices to say no

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA