December 11, 2008 9:00am by David Farrar

Select Committees

I guess the House has voted to populate the select committees, as the Parliamentary website now lists members for them. What I am interested in, is how many does the Government have a majority on.

  1. Commerce – National 4, ACT 1, Maori 1, Labour 3 – Govt 5/9
  2. Education & Science – National 4, ACT 1, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 5/9
  3. Finance & Expenditure – National 5, ACT 1, Maori 1, Labour 4, Green 1 – Govt 7/12
  4. Foreign Affairs/Defence/Trade – National 4, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 4/8
  5. Government Administration – National 4, Labour 3 – Govt 4/7
  6. Health – National 5, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 5/9
  7. Justice & Electoral – National 5, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 5/9
  8. Law & Order – National 5, ACT 1, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 6/10
  9. Local Govt & Environment – National 5, ACT 1, Maori 1, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 7/11
  10. Maori Affairs – National 3, Maori 1, Labour 3 – Govt 4/7
  11. Primary Production – National 4, Labour 3, Progressive 1 – Govt 4/8
  12. Regulations Review – National 3, Maori 1, Labour 3 – Govt 4/7
  13. Social Services – National 5, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 5/9
  14. Transport & Industrial Relations – National 5, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 5/9
  15. ETS Review – National 4, ACT 1, United Future 1, Maori 1, Labour 3, Green 1 – Govt 7/11

I have a fair idea of who the Chairs and Deputy Chairs will be, but I’ll wait until they have all been confirmed by their Committees before posting names!

So we can group the select committees a number of ways

National majority

Health, Justice & Electoral, Social Services, Government Administration, Transport & Industrial Relations

The Government should have no problems passing laws in these areas.

National/ACT majority

Education & Science, Commerce. Law & Order, Local Government & Environment,

This could be significant as ACT want to introduce significant education reforms. Also useful for Rodney with any regulatory and local government reform.

National/Maori majority

Maori Affairs, Regulations Review

Very useful for the Maori Party relationship, that with National they have a majority on the committee.

National/ACT/Maori majority

Finance & Expenditure

In this important committee, National will need both major partners to have a majority

National and two of ACT, Maori or United Future

ETS Review

So National can pass changes without ACT if Dunne and Maori Party agree.

No majority – tied

Foreign Affairs/Defence/Trade, Primary Production

To some degree these areas are less controversial than others, so not having a majority is less of an issue. At the worst the Select Committee makes no changes to a bill, and it is all done at Committee of the Whole stage. Also means no inquiries can be launched without a Government party voting for it.


As I said above, I’ll review the Chairs and Deputy Chairs later today or tomorrow, when they are confirmed.