- Engage
- Posts
- Engage-in-Brief: 10 March 2025
Engage-in-Brief: 10 March 2025
Holly Bennett
March 10, 2025
A free fortnightly 5-minute read to make advocacy simple
17 people upskilled their advocacy this fortnight
Read this newsletter on LinkedIn
TWO TRICKS TO TRY
It’s hard to know what effect your submission had on a bill, but you can get a pretty good idea by reading a departmental report. Officials use these to summarise and analyse submissions, then make recommendations to the committee about changes to the bill. They’re private until the committee reports back to the House, but you can find them here once they’re public. If you’ve submitted on a bill lately, have a look at the report and see what it says!
Parliament’s first special debate for 2025 is happening this Thursday, when Parliament will debate the Finance and Expenditure Committee’s report into climate adaptation. Special debates give members of Parliament (MPs) the chance to speak about other issues important to New Zealanders. Try watching a special debate, and consider what it tells you about how MPs engage with big issues.
.
ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW
Last week, Parliament debated the first reading of the Term of Parliament (Enabling 4-year Term) Legislation Amendment Bill. If passed, the standard term of Parliament will remain at three years, but with an option to extend a term of Parliament to four years. There have been several attempts to extend the parliamentary term in the past, but none were successful.
The bill proposes that a term could be extended to four years if the membership of each select committee is proportionate to the number of non-Executive members of Parliament. That could mean the public wouldn’t know how long the Parliament would last until well after the election.
All parties voted in favour of the bill’s first reading, but there was no such agreement about the bill’s future past the select committee phase. Extending the parliamentary term would be a significant constitutional change, and needs significant input from both experts and the general public.
The bill has been referred to the Justice Committee, and submissions are now open. If you’ve got opinions about whether a four-year term is a good idea, and whether this is the right way to go about establishing one, let them know what you think!
 |  |
FROM OUR PARTNERS
Seeking impartial news? Meet 1440.
Every day, 3.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a brief 5-minute email. Enjoy an impartial news experience.
FROM OUR TAUIRA
...all I can say is WOW. It is a game changer for me, and has helped push forward my goals of helping bring about change in an area I am so passionate about, animal welfare.
ONE FUNNY THING
Although we firmly believe in paying attention to what gets said in the House, this moment from Question Time last week made us laugh!
That’s it for this edition of Engage-in-Brief. Remember, you have a voice and you can use it. If you need training to support your advocacy efforts simply reply to this email. And if you try out one of this week’s tricks, let us know about it!
Mauri ora!
Reply