Labour ‘loses confidence’ in Speaker over fast track ruling
Wednesday, 11 December 2024
Shadow Leader of the House Kieran McAnulty says Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker over an “unprecedented” decision over the Fast-track Approvals Bill.
The Clerk of the House, David Wilson, is responsible for heading the office that runs many of the operations that go on behind the scenes at Parliament and provides advice to the Speaker on procedure and parliamentary law. Last night, it emerged that he had advised that the Government’s decision to select 149 applicants that could have developments fast-tracked contravened those rules.
Deputy speaker Barbara Kuriger upheld that advice, ruling the amendment identifying the fast-track projects was “out of order”.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee was recalled to the house and overruled the clerk and his deputy after a series of earnest pleas from both sides of the house.
McAnulty said it “has raised serious constitutional questions about the passing of a Government bill that provides for private benefit”.
“This amendment provides a list of 149 individuals and companies that will benefit from this change. There is a clear process for private bills that has not been followed in this case.”
On Tuesday evening when Brownlee was recalled to the House, he said “it won't surprise members that I've done a great deal of thinking about this particular issue”.
In his decision, he said, “it's finely balanced, but that is my conclusion”.
He said there were few bills that didn’t provide any private benefits, and the benefits created by this bill were not certain.
Because it was a finely balanced decision, he decided to allow more time for debate of the bill in the committee stage.
On Wednesday, Leader of the House Chris Bishop said “the clerk is wrong and the academics are wrong as well”.
He said the bill had an extended time at select committee, meaning there had been “a really robust process to improve the bill”.
“We've listened to a range of feedback from people around the bill, and changed the bill quite substantially. The most notable change is to take the consenting power away from ministers and to give it to the expert panels. There's a whole range of other process improvements to the bill.
He said the Government stood behind the legislation.
“The idea that this is somehow novel is not correct, and the clerk is wrong, and the people who are criticising it on the grounds that there are alleged private benefits for private companies are wrong.”