Thankfully, that milestone/millstone (delete as appropriate) is behind it — although odds on there will be another 100-day action plan announced some time soon.
It will take Southern Say a few columns to catch up with all the interesting things our local representatives have been up to, so let’s begin by winding the clock back to Thursday, February 29 — a day on which, thanks to the peculiarities of Parliament’s scheduling a normal Wednesday programme was on the order paper.
This was a big day for Act New Zealand Southland list MP Todd Stephenson as just a few weeks into his parliamentary career he got his hands on the wheel to steer a Bill through the House.
As noted a couple of weeks back, Mr Stephenson got lucky in the ballot for new member’s Bills and his Parole (Mandatory Completion of Rehabilitative Programmes) Amendment Bill — old draft legislation in the name of former Act MP Toni Severin which had languished unselected in the biscuit tin during the last term — was picked.
If you are a new government backbencher a member’s Bill offers a tremendous opportunity to get some much-needed speaking practice in the House, and also to gain inside knowledge of how the legislative process works. (Opposition MPs’ members Bills seldom get past their first reading, no matter how worthy they might be, usually for no better reason than because they are in the name of an opposition MP).
In his first reading speech Mr Stephenson acknowledged that he was walking in Ms Severin’s steps, but also established his bona fides in the area of criminal law as an Otago law graduate and, briefly, an employee of leading criminal lawyer Judith Ablett-Kerr.
"I did get some insights into our criminal justice system and the types of people going through that system."
Act has made mighty efforts to be seen as a party that is tough on law and order, but this Bill is criminal-focused and has rehabilitation at the heart of its intent.
As Mr Stephenson said, that might seem counterintuitive to some, but it is long-standing Act policy to incentivise offenders to reform themselves. Apart from anything else, it makes good economic sense to have an ex-con working and paying tax rather than knocking over a dairy and going back to jail, at huge expense to the taxpayer.
There are some fish hooks in the Bill as Mr Stephenson’s Otago law school contemporary, Dunedin Labour MP Rachel Brooking, pointed out: Corrections is understaffed and a good rehabilitation programme takes time and resources: "we would not want the lack of funding for rehabilitation to get in the way of somebody being paroled."
That said, Labour was content to let the Bill progress to select committee — only the Greens and Te Pati Maori voted against it — so Mr Stephenson’s legislative learning curve is set to continue.
A gallant second?
Some time this weekend the Green Party will announce its new co-leader. Without pre-judging the outcome, given the press conference is not being held in Dunedin it seems unlikely that hometown hero Alex Foulkes will be the winner.
Mr Foulkes continued a proud tradition of southern Greens mounting quixotic campaigns for the leadership, following in the footsteps of James Cockle’s challenging of outgoing co-leader James Shaw. Mr Foulkes went so far as to issue an extensive "eco-socialist" manifesto setting out his vision of what the party should campaign on.
There may have been a few too many references to "capitalist ploys", drug decriminalisation and "genocidal apartheid" for some people’s liking, but Mr Foulkes left no-one mystified as to what he stands for, which is no bad thing in a politician.
Mr Foulkes did make one interesting point, echoing an observation that Southern Say has made before, that every parliamentary party leader is based in the North Island. Indeed, so are most Cabinet ministers.
Indeed, he went further, and released a specific South Island policy, which called for further investment in infrastructure, government departments to be devolved and moved to the South Island, further investment in public lands and conservation, and lowering the cost of public transport particularly and travelling in general.
None of which will happen, but his broader point — do Wellington and Auckland even know the South Island exists — has some merit.
Not enraptured
Taieri Green list MP Scott Willis may have seemed an unlikely MP to opine on the repeal of the Auckland regional fuel tax, but he gave an interesting speech which highlighted how Dunedin, seeking to reach a zero-carbon target by 2030, could have used such a tool.
He also ripped into the government with unexpected vigour: "What this Bill does is disincentivise and give the middle finger to every other local jurisdiction around the country, to say: ‘We don’t care. We’re too entitled to let you choose’", he said.
"I am embarrassed to be in a Parliament that allows something to happen like this. This is just a shocking, shocking indictment of the climate denialism that we face across the aisle. It’s a shocking indictment of the desire for Rapture — you want to head there in an SUV, but this isn’t going to happen."
