Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
BUSINESS STATEMENT
Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Deputy Leader of the House): Legislation to be considered next week will include the first reading of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill, the second reading of the COVID-19 Response (Courts Safety) Legislation Bill, and the third readings of Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki/Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill and the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Bill. Wednesday, 6 April will be a members’ day.
Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I thank the acting Leader of the House for the update. A couple of questions: can he advise the House whether those Ministers participating in the annual review debate who are not needing to isolate due to COVID will be physically present in the House for the debate, and, secondly, can he advise whether or not the Government will be seeking to shorten the report-back date of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill, or will it go through a full select committee process?
Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Deputy Leader of the House): In respect of the first question asked by the member, it’s always the case that the Government works to ensure that Ministers are available for that purpose. That will, of course, depend on the particular circumstances of that Minister, but I’d ask that if there are any particular queries or concerns about that, the member and the shadow Leader of the House get in touch, and we’ll be happy to try and facilitate that as much as we can. In respect of the Fair Pay Agreements Bill, we’ve clearly signalled that we expect there to be a standard select committee process for that important piece of legislation.
Hon JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): I thank the Deputy Leader of the House for that update, and just ask if he’s had any updates on the Organic Products Bill, which we asked about last week, and I think he said he was going to get further advice about the progress of that into the House, given that it came out of the committee stage over a year ago now.
Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Deputy Leader of the House): The additional advice is still digesting there, but I’m sure that we’ll be able to get good information to the member as soon as it has, and I will endeavour to get some clarity for him as soon as possible.
