Lewis has been talking a bit recently about constructive votes of confidence, particularly when appointing a Prime Minister. At present, the first opportunity the House has to vote down a government is at the end of the Address in Reply...extreme biker no cd
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Brian of the NZ Monarchist blog is worried about how the Treaty of Waitangi could apply if New Zealand became a republic, because the treaty is with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. I really don't see how this is...extreme biker no cd
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Lewis Holden has written a good article on the Constitution of New Zealand (yes we do have one). It has a slight slant towards his republican views, but is still a very good source of information....extreme biker no cd
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No Right Turn has a very well-reasoned submission opposing the bill to reduce the number of MPs. He that reducing the number of MPs without reducing the number of electorates effectively destroys proportional representation (the whole reason for MMP), and...extreme biker no cd
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I hadn't noticed previously, but on Tuesday Parliament voted to suspend Standing Orders, to allow the introduction of an omnibus bill to rework a lot of the laws around local government. The motion to suspend standing orders passed by only...extreme biker no cd
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Lewis Holden has posted his thoughts on Mai Chen's article about elevating the Treaty of Waitangi to a supreme law (so laws contradicting it could be struck down by the courts). He specifically points out that a move to a...extreme biker no cd
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There's an opinion piece in the NZ Herald today written by Mai Chen, part of the Chen and Palmer public law firm. She is suggesting that the NZ Supreme Court might be willing to make the Treaty of Waitangi as...extreme biker no cd
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Parliament provides a number of ways for Opposition MPs to get information from Ministers in order to hold them accountable. Once such mechanism are written questions.MPs may ask written questions to Ministers about anything related to their portfolios. There is...extreme biker no cd
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I wrote previously about some limitations that could be made to the rules on urgency in Parliament, to try and slow down the pace of Parliament. The New Zealand Parliament passes a large number of laws at present, some of...extreme biker no cd
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Lewis and I have both posted recently on the possibilities of reintroducing an Upper House in New Zealand, mainly to slow down the pace of legislation. Unfortunately we both agree that such an event is extremely unlikely, as neither National...extreme biker no cd
Holden Republic has an interesting post waying up the pros and cons of bringing back the Upper House. The post also takes a look at Doug Graham's proposal back in the early 1990s to establish a Senate, which I would...extreme biker no cd
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Sir Humphrey's Department of Unspin has its weekly poll on this issue this week. One of the first comments on that poll points to the example of Switzerland, then it could work for us.However, I don't think it is as...extreme biker no cd
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The Herald on Sunday has an article today (in the print edition at least, I can't find it online at present) about the latest MP pay rise. This pay rise was announced by the Renumeration Authority back in December, but...extreme biker no cd
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