This week in Parliament

This week in Parliament is a brief overview of anticipated business and events to be conducted by the House and Select Committees in the coming week.

The Order Paper is similar to an agenda, listing all the business before the House that sitting day. The order of business can change until the final order paper is published at 10:30am on the sitting day.

The Select Committee Schedule of meetings lists all committee business being conducted for the week. Business items displaying an asterisk indicate meetings that are open to the public. The meeting schedule is subject to changes at short notice.

Government legislation scheduled this week

Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill

The Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill is scheduled to pass through all remaining stages.

This bill proposes to refocus the purpose, functions, and infrastructure of Health New Zealand, with the aim of strengthening its governance, strategic direction, and monitoring arrangements for health service delivery. The bill will make multiple changes, in particular:

• inserting a new purpose into the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 to ensure that patients get quality and timely access to health services
• requiring Health New Zealand to institute a permanent infrastructure committee appointed by the Minister to provide a planned and sustainable infrastructure  
• enabling the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee to engage with Māori communities to give advice on health needs in their area and provide advice to the Minister of Health and Health New Zealand on health services for Māori.

The full content of the bill and amendment papers are available here.

Antisocial Road Use Legislation Amendment Bill

The Antisocial Road Use Legislation Amendment Bill is scheduled to pass through all remaining stages.

This bill seeks to give the Police and courts greater powers to deter disruptive and dangerous road user behaviour that has negative effects on road and community safety.

The bill proposes to amend various Acts to achieve its purpose by creating new offences and strengthening penalties associated with those behaviours. Some of these amendments include:

•  a new “frightening or intimidating convoy” offence for operating a vehicle dangerously and/or recklessly while travelling in a group of 2 or more vehicles
•  a new presumption that a court can order that a vehicle be forfeited, or forfeited and destroyed on a first offence upon conviction
• giving the Police a power to temporarily close to traffic an area where antisocial road user activity is occurring or is expected to occur.

The full content of the bill and an amendment paper are available here.

Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill

The Regulatory Systems (Primary Industries) Amendment Bill is scheduled to pass through all remaining stages.

This bill seeks to improve certain regulatory systems administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries. The bill proposes to amend (or in some cases repeal) 19 Acts and associated regulations. The bill proposes to:

• clarify and update statutory provisions to ensure effectively support the intended purpose of each Act and its individual provisions.
• address regulatory duplication, gaps, errors, and inconsistencies within and between different pieces of legislation:
• ensure that the regulatory systems remain up to date and relevant:
• reduce administrative burden for regulators and regulated parties.

The full content of the bill and amendment papers are available here.