Labour freezing National MPs out of select committees

The Herald reports:

National has accused the new Government of an unprecedented and alarming erosion of democratic rights after disagreement over committees which play a crucial role in passing laws.

Labour has hit back – saying its plan to have 96 select committee places comes after National leader Bill English warned of his party’s size and the effect it will have on how Parliament operates.

National MP and shadow leader of the house Simon Bridges said it was normal for places on select committees to be roughly equivalent to the size of Parliament, or around 120 MPs.

Useful to have some history here. Since 1996 the number of select committee places has been 120. Last year the Standing Orders Committee recommended reducing this number as ” some members have too many
committee commitments”. They decided not to set a number on standing orders and said:

We do not favour specifying the number of seats in the Standing Orders. The Business Committee should retain the ability to determine the size of each committee. We propose instead that the Business Committee adopt a target of 96 seats across the 12 subject select
committees.

This change was made when there were three significant opposition parties. It suited them also as they had MPs on more than one select committee. The reason the number wasn’t fixed in standing orders was to give flexibility if circumstances change.

But what we now have is one opposition party with 56 MPs. And if only 96 spots are available, National gets only 45 spots. That means 11 MPs have no select committee membership.

This is wrong. Serving on a select committee is a vital part of being an MP. It is both a learning experience, but also a responsibility to contribute.

National has said they would be happy with 108 seats on select committees as that would give them 51 spots. The whips, Leader, Deputy Leader and Deputy Speaker don’t normally serve so every backbench MP would be on a select committee.

Labour could agree to this. But because they have appointed such a bloated executive with 31 Ministers and Under-Secretaries they are refusing to compromise as many of their backbench MPs would be on two select committees.

To me it is clear what is the greater harm. Sure it is annoying to be on two select committees, but it is harmful to refuse to allow enough places for an Opposition MP who wants to be on a select committee to serve.

Under Gerry Brownlee and Simon Bridges the Business Committee was flexible and co-operative which has led to a great improvement in the running of Parliament. Chris Hipkins is starting his tenure as Leader of the House with inflexibility which bodes very badly for how Parliament will operate.

All they have to do is agree to 108 places which means four more spots on select committees for Labour MPs, one more for NZ First and one more for Greens.