This press release from Brownlee is a truly nauseating effort:
Urgency moved with regret
Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee says the Government regrets the need to put Parliament into urgency this afternoon, saying his preference was for legislation that will be covered under urgency to be debated using extended hours. …
“We have always used extended hours responsibly and rarely, and that would have remained the case had we used them on this occasion.” …
“This Government is conscious to not abuse urgency, and only rarely and with good reason opts to pass bills through all stages under urgency.
Oh please. In the real world this is how the Nats actually operate:
Bulldozed rush of legislation makes mockery of democracy
It [National] has adopted a bulldozing approach that is disturbingly at odds with democratic Government. Gerry Brownlee would not even name the bills to be passed under urgency, but only the subject areas that they canvassed. Worse, he refused to give Opposition parties advance copies of any of the bills, until just before they were to be debated in Parliament.
The fact that the matters were being dealt with under urgency already meant that there would be no chance for public submission; there is no room in the action plan for tedious details such as the select committee process, by which interested parties get to express their view about proposed legislation. … It is a state of affairs seriously at odds with the notion of a Parliamentary democracy. …
It is entirely possible that National is in the grip of a first flush of legislative enthusiasm. If so, it will adopt a more measured pace in the new year. If not, there is cause for concern. The Clark administration was often described as taking a “nanny state” approach – but it did consult widely; the Nats, by contrast, are looking remarkably like bullies.
And from there the misuse of urgency continued. Brownlee’s latest press release is pure smarm.
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