The special Electoral Select Committee
April 6th, 2010 at 1:00 pm by David FarrarLast week the House established a special Electoral Legislation Select Committee, to consider the electoral finance and the MMP referenda bills.
It is set up to specifically include all seven Parliamentary parties, to try and continue the consensual approach Simon Power has fostered in this area. The difference between this and Labour’s approach to the old Electoral Finance Act is massive.
According to Dave at Big News, the committee is:
- National (4) – Amy Adams (Chair), Hekia Parata, Paul Quinn, Chris Tremain
- Labour (3) – Lianne Dalziel, Pete Hodgson, Darren Hughes
- Green (1) – Metiria Turei
- Maori (1) – Rahui Katene
- ACT (1) – John Boscawen
- United (1) – Peter Dunne
- Progressive (1) – Jim Anderton
Not that I expect too many divisions on partisan lines, but note the CR parties have six members, CL five members and Maori Party one member. So neither CR nor CL have a majority.
The appointment of Amy Adams as Chair is notable, as she has only been an MP for just over a year. Amy is hugely competent, and a very strong performer. I expect she will be the first of the Class of 2008 to become a Minister.
Related posts:
- Select Committee Chairs
- Select Committee Chairs
- Select Committee Chairs
- Select Committee Oral Submission
April 6th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I once accidentally overheard a conversation between Amy Adams and Todd McClay at the Back Bencher; although i recognise that all MPs are human it destroyed my confidence in MPs as the true leaders of this country. Their language was vulgar and it was focused on a opposition MP.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Turei? Will she be pushing her 60 Maori seats agenda?
Although it might be worth noticing that 2 of the 4 National Delegates are in fact Maori.
But to be fair, Labour do have the only ginga….
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
The appointment of Amy Adams as Chair is notable, as she has only been an MP for just over a year. Amy is hugely competent, and a very strong performer. I expect she will be the first of the Class of 2008 to become a Minister.
Yes she ticks all the boxes of what a National MP should be. Good choice for chair of any Select Committee.
Vote:At least you know what she stands for unlike other MPs including Key’s who chops and changes his position.
April 6th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
“but note the CR parties have six members, CL five members and Maori Party one member. So neither CR nor CL have a majority.”
Yes but the Government is guaranteed Katene’s vote as she is a minion of Turia who will not jeopardise her Whanau Ora policy for anything. So effectively the CR do have the voting majority.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Umm the Maori Party have voted against National dozens and dozens of times. Please try not to invent things.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
The CR 6 CL 6 with their coalition partners can’t anyone count.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
I’m interested that National get 4 members and Labour only 3. Was there some intent to do this based on votes cast in last election? Or something else? I thought the general philosophy was to give equal to Labour and National in forums like this, even if one or the other happened to be up in the polls or the last election.
I do agree that it is still way better than what Labour did, but if this is the template that National would want Labour to follow if they were in power, would National be happy with slightly lower representation than Labour? I presume it is a consultation group only, so why the need to have a majority on it – if they don’t like what comes out surely they can still over rule?
[DPF: Membership on select committees is generally proportional to number of MPs. ANd the point I made is National does not have a majority]
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Then Dunne is not a done deal either.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
“I expect she will be the first of the Class of 2008 to become a Minister”
Steven Joyce?
[DPF: Oh yes forgot about him. Second indeed]
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
DPF: understand membership on select committees generally being proportional to MPs. Does that apply to this as well? For some reason I had a feeling that on electoral matters we generally had equal representation from the two major parties. Don’t get me wrong, any representation is a damn sight better than what Labour came up with, but still….
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Not really. The EFA went to a select committee with 4 Labour MPs and 4 National MPs, but the 2005 election was very close. The 2008 election was not close, so National gets a lot more strength on select committees (as Labour did after 2002, for example).
And it’s generally designed to be based on party strength in Parliament, not votes at the election (thus, overall, the Maori Party has the same representation over all select committees as ACT does, despite ACT getting many more Party votes).
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
lol imagine sitting on a committee with Turei, Dunne and Anderton!
National MP’s deserve a bonus.
God, the labour mps arent flash either.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Hodgsen and Hughes are quite capable of making trouble so we will see how Amy performs. If she does well she will be a Minister for sure. The Labour Party want state funding in any shape or form and for years have essentially run their party from Parliament. They simply do not want to spend their time fund raising seeing it as a waste of their time. National have a different view though traditional forms of fund raising while useful politically do not raise the money needed to fight political campaigns.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Why is the non-party represented?
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Good point – why is Anderton there his party does not exist.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
More to the point, good to see John Boscawen there. I just hope his views aren’t drowned by the likes of Dunne who, after all, owes his pathetic Parliamentary existence to MMP and thus is hardly likely to take a dispassionate view. (Yes I know Boscawen is also a list MP. I just have confidence in him to do what’s best for democracy based on his past).
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Yes Joyce is choice… OK National has some really good performing MPs.. Now name some high performers in the other parties.. and I don’t mean performing Badly.
Vote:April 6th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Who selects the party reps to select committees as I see huge irony in Ms Dalziel and Mr Hodgson being there.
Vote:April 7th, 2010 at 2:00 am
Joyce doesn’t count – he’s from the Nanny Party.
Vote:April 7th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Saying Joyce is a good performing Minister is like calling Pol Pot an effective agrarian reformer.
Vote: