What happens when the House is not sitting

The House of Representatives adjourned on Thursday 28 June, and will next sit on Tuesday 17 July. While the House itself is not sitting for two weeks, the work of Parliament goes on in other ways.

The time between two sittings of the House is called an ‘adjournment’. In adjournment periods members of Parliament may have greater opportunity to spend time in their electorates meeting and talking with constituents. A number of members also are involved in select committee meetings over this two-week period.

The Health Committee is meeting in Wellington on 12 July and in Auckland on 13 July to hear submissions on its inquiry into preventing child abuse and improving children’s health outcomes. Submissions on the inquiry will be published on this website once released by the committee (see related link).

The Education and Science Committee is meeting in Auckland on 12 July to hear submissions on its inquiry into 21st century learning environments and digital literacy. Some submissions on this inquiry have been released, and can be viewed by following the related link.

For information on the meetings, which are open to the public, see the schedule of select committee meetings in the related links panel on this page. The schedule is published weekly.

Adjournment periods provide opportunities for many other activities. For example, several members of Parliament are in East Timor acting as official observers of the parliamentary election taking place there, and the Speaker is leading a small delegation of members on visits to parliaments in Britain, Croatia, and Brussels (see related link).

The Speakers’ delegation is an integral part of the New Zealand Parliament’s inter-parliamentary relations programme, approved by the Speaker on an annual basis. The New Zealand Parliament is a member of a number of inter-parliamentary organisations and receives numerous invitations and requests for visits. The Speaker’s delegation forms part of an informal global reciprocal arrangement for parliamentary diplomacy.

Members of Parliament who are Ministers continue with their Government work as usual.