No more jaw-jaw on Roy's student union bill

Heather Roy. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour's campaign to delay Act MP Heather Roy's bill abolishing compulsory membership of student unions is reaching its end game and the bill will probably pass before the election, shadow Leader of the House Trevor Mallard says.

Labour MPs have been working for months to delay the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, employing a range of time wasting or "filibustering" tactics which have tested parliamentary discipline.

Ms Roy's bill has Government backing but because it is a member's bill it can be debated only every second Wednesday that Parliament sits. Parliament's normal progress has also been interrupted by a period of urgency and the bill has now been held up for several months.

Labour has held up progress on the bill mainly by extending debates on items ahead of it on Parliament's order paper, but that tactic was thwarted this week when Ms Roy found a way to postpone debate on the first item and get her legislation on to the floor. However, Labour MPs managed to waste more time by arguing points forcing Speaker Lockwood Smith to intervene.

When Parliament adjourned on Wednesday night only one clause of the bill was left to be debated in the committee stage but given there are just three Wednesdays on which it can be debated before November 26 it was looking doubtful it would be passed before then.

"Oppose and delay are the two weapons that an opposition has," Mr Mallard said yesterday. "Delay can draw attention to the degree of anxiety that we have around a particular piece of legislation."

Supporters of the bill say student unions are the only ones in the country which still have compulsory membership, and are often organised by political activists who run partisan campaigns which don't represent the views of members.

Opponents argue that unions and associations will perish without compulsory membership because hard-up students won't pay fees, and valuable roles such as advocacy will be lost.

Mr Mallard, a 27-year veteran of Parliament, said he couldn't recall a members bill being filibustered for so long since the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1986.

Given that they believed many National MPs were not strongly supportive of the bill, Labour had hoped that its delaying tactics would allow a compromise to emerge, but had now given up on that prospect.

Although there are just three days on which the bill can be debated before the election and it needs at least two to pass, "the way it's shaping up the bill will pass before then", Mr Mallard said.

He believed the Government would take action to ensure that, which could include taking over the bill itself or having it heard under urgency. additional reporting NZPA