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- Engage-in-Brief: 17 November 2025
Engage-in-Brief: 17 November 2025
Holly Bennett
November 17, 2025
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TWO TRICKS TO TRY
Although the Government usually advises the House in advance when it's planning an extended sitting, plans for urgency are usually kept closer to the chest. But you can sometimes predict urgency plans by checking the schedule of select committee meetings. So if the committee meetings are scheduled to start at 8am instead of 9am, they're already expecting the House to be in session that day. Committees usually don't meet while the House is sitting, which means if you've got a meeting with an MP or are making an oral submission to a select committee, it might get cancelled or postponed.
Even when we can correctly guess urgency plans in advance, we won't know what it’s for until the urgency motion — a speech to the House explaining what legislation will be covered, and why it needs to be done quickly. So if you want to know what's urgent, and why it's so important that the normal parliamentary process needs to be overruled, check the Hansard or Parliament TV!
ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW
If you’ve been paying attention to the political news over the past couple of weeks, you’ll have heard all about the passage of the Regulatory Standards Bill and the announcement of a new Government strategy to combat meth harm.
If you’ve been paying especially close attention, you might have seen changes being made to the Education and Training Act or the introduction of a new Fast-Track bill.
But only the most dedicated of politics nerds (like us here at Engage) will have noticed the passage of some legislation that makes significant constitutional change — the Parliament Act 2025.
Passed into law following its third reading on 6 November, the Parliament Act consolidates and modernises the all the different pieces of legislation that relate to the operations and administration of Parliament.
One of the major changes in the new Act, which was passed unanimously, establishes a new funding model for the Office of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Service, meaning that their Budgets are set by Parliament itself, rather than being left up to the Government. This is an important safeguard for the independence of the legislature, since it means that the Executive can’t arbitrarily decide to cut Parliament’s funding to reduce scrutiny and oversight (this has never happened before, and now it never will!).
Another change is an update to the role of Parliamentary Security Officers, providing them with statutory powers similar to those of court security officers — clarifying what they are able to do, and what they are not, in a way that balances the safety of MPs and those who work there while still ensuring that Parliament is open and accessible to everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.
(The new Act also clarifies that Parliament doesn’t have the power to imprison people — which is good for many reasons, including that the Parliament buildings are already quite full and there’s probably not really anywhere to keep them).
To learn more about the Parliament Act, you can check out this article from The Post’s Henry Cooke. Or click the image in the Latest News section below, and read the Government’s press release about the Bill’s successful third reading.
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FROM OUR TAUIRA
The LOBBYLITE course contains critical information about how to influence government thinking and direction that affects you, your business, your lifestyle, or your vocation. Having your voice heard is essential and LOBBYLITE taught us who to reach out to, who to canvas, which party or parties to talk to, when to start doing this, and how...in theory and with a practical session where you literally start planning your first lobbying! LOBBYLITE is taught in a short 4-hour session and you are literally entertained and surprised every minute of it with the dynamite Holly Bennett. If you get the chance to attend a LOBBYLITE course...take it!
ONE FUNNY THING
Hearings on Parliament’s triennial review of Standing Orders are well under way (you’ll remember we wrote about the Standing Orders Review back in August), with the committee meeting each week to hear from submitters about how they might want to improve the rules and processes that keep Parliament functioning.
But in last week’s hearing, the committee also discussed a little-known feature of Parliament’s history…
The point came up during the submission of Dr Jonathan Godfrey ONZM, a recognised leader amongst disabled people’s organisations, whose submission called on members of Parliament to consider how their use of language might have wider impact on vulnerable people outside of the House.
That’s it for another 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.
Mauri ora!
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