Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

3694 Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill 16 May 2009
amendments seek to amend substantially another Act, and therefore could change the
bill into an omnibus bill; the amendment is therefore out of order. I refer the member to
Standing Orders 256 and 257. The next amendment in the name of Sue Kedgley is to
insert a new Part 4, “Auckland Rail Transport Transition”. This amendment is outside
the scope of the bill, as the bill deals with governance, not operational aspects and
targets.
Sue Kedgley: I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I do not want to challenge
your ruling, but—
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Could I read them through first, and then I
will give the member the opportunity to take a point of order. The next amendment is to
insert a new Part 4, “Transport Funding Transition”. This amendment is also outside the
scope of the bill as the bill deals with governance, not operational aspects and targets.
The next amendment is to insert a new Part 4, “Amendments to the Land Transport Act
1998”. This amendment is also outside the scope of the bill as the bill deals with
governance, not operational aspects and targets. The next amendment is to insert a new
Part 4, “Transition Cost Recovery Plastic Bag Levy”. This amendment is outside the
scope of the bill, as the bill deals with governance, not operational aspects and targets.
The next amendment is to insert a new Part 4, “Cruelty Free Auckland Ports”. This
amendment is outside the scope of the bill, as the bill deals with governance, not
operational aspects and targets. The next amendment inserts a new Part 4 amending—
Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. Could you make
clear whether these are still Sue Kedgley’s amendments?
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Yes, they are. The next amendment inserts
a new Part 4 amending the Overseas Investment Act 2005. This amendment is out of
order, as it proposes a substantive amendment to another Act. The next amendment
inserts a new Part 4 headed “Transition to Sustainable Investment”. Part 3 of the bill
sets up a transitional agency, and all provisions relating to it are logically found there.
The proposed amendment is more fairly associated with Part 3. Part 3 has been dealt
with by the Committee, so the amendment is therefore out of order. The next
amendment inserts a new Part 4 headed “Transitional Agency Civil and Political
Rights”. Part 3 of the bill sets up a transitional agency, and all provisions relating to it
are logically found there. The proposed amendment is more fairly associated with
clause 13, in Part 3. Part 3 has been dealt with by the Committee, so the amendment is
therefore out of order.
Those are the amendments in the name of Sue Kedgley that I have ruled out of order.
SUE KEDGLEY (Green): I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I cannot
understand how you can rule that this bill deals only with substantive amendments and
does not deal with operational amendments, when the bill deals with incredibly detailed
operational matters. You need only to look at clause 31, which says the councils are not
allowed even to enter into a contract of more than $5,000 without the approval of the
Auckland Transition Agency. Very, very detailed operational matters are outlined in
other parts of the bill. I cannot understand how it can be argued that the bill does not
deal with operational matters, when, in fact, the whole bill is full of them.
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): My interpretation in my ruling relates to
the preliminary provisions of the bill. They set out very clearly that the bill is about
structure and governance, and not about operational matters. My ruling is based on the
preliminary provisions of the bill before us—the clauses associated with those. That is
my ruling.
SUE KEDGLEY (Green): I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I really am
struggling to understand this. I think this is a pretty important point. The bill is riddled
with operational matters. In fact, you could argue that much of the bill is about not