Bills on revenge porn, miscarriage bereavement leave, abortion clinic safe zones and medicinal cannabis have been worked on by MPs in this Parliament's first members' day.
Members' days are held every second Wednesday that Parliament is sitting but this Parliament's first members' day was delayed twice; first by a bill being debated under urgency (which means it gets worked on first ahead of any other business until it's done), and secondly by changes in COVID-19 alert levels which reduced Parliament's sitting hours.
Most of the bills that go through Parliament are from the government but this day is a chance for MPs who are not ministers to have their bills considered.
Miscarriage bereavement leave
This bill from Labour MP Ginny Anderson will allow employees to be eligible for three days of bereavement leave following the unplanned end of pregnancy by miscarriage or stillbirth.
They went through the Committee of the Whole House Stage which is the stage where MPs check the details of the bill to make sure it's written properly and has everything that MPs want in it. It's also the last chance to make changes that are put forward as supplementary order papers (MPs refer to these as SOPs).
A committee stage is normally the most boring to follow as MPs debate the minute details like the title of the bill but it's a necessary step to make sure there aren't any issues or mistakes that need to be corrected. Bills don't pass or fail at this stage.
Revenge porn
At the beginning of its journey to becoming law is a bill from Labour MP Louisa Wall on what's colloquially referred to as revenge porn.
- Read the Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill
It says that a person who shares an intimate visual recording without the agreement of the person in it could be imprisoned for up to three years or fined up to $50,000.
A corporation could be fined up to $200,000.
In a first reading debate MPs share their initial thoughts on the bill including whether or not they're likely to support it, some parts they might agree with and some parts they think should be scrapped or looked at more closely.
Louisa Wall said Waikato University Associate Professor Wayne Rumbles has already told her of an area that the bill should address but does not.
"The interesting thing about that engagement is that he absolutely supports this bill, but he was quick to highlight that there are missing elements in terms of digital communications, digital technologies, and specifically around deep fakes," she said.
"I wonder how many of us know what a deep fake is. Well, if you're on TikTok, you will have seen it recently because Tom Cruise has been seen to be doing a whole lot of things, and the reality is it's not Tom Cruise: it's synthetic media. It's artificial intelligence. And so the issue that we have, actually, is about how those platforms can be used to abuse."
The bill passed with the support of all parties and will now go to the Justice Committee - a smaller group of MPs from various parties that will look more closely at the legislation, ask for the public, experts, and officials to put forward their view and then write a report on the bill for the rest of the MPs to read. That report can include recommendations for changes or record a party's opposition to the bill.
Submissions can be made on this bill until 23 April through Parliament's website.
Abortion clinic safe zones
This bill, also from Labour MP Louisa Wall and also at its first reading stage, will allow for safe areas to be set up around specific abortion facilities so people's access to those services are not obstructed by protests.
Voting on this bill was different to the usual process.
The normal procedure is for parties to vote as a block together. This saves a lot of time as one MP from each party can say how it will vote rather than having each MP's vote counted individually. This is known as a party vote.
Debates in the House also have a set number of speeches and each party gets given some depending on its size. They then arrange which MP will take that speaking slot before the debate.
Wall's bill was treated as a conscience issue which means MPs can vote according to their own opinion on the bill instead of following their party's line. The speaker decides who gets to make a speech and MPs record their votes individually.
The bill passed its first reading with 100 MPs in favour, 15 against, and two choosing not to vote. You can see how MPs voted at the end of this transcript of the debate.
Medicinal cannabis
Not all MPs were successful in their bid to put through a bill. National MP Shane Reti's bill on dispensing medicinal cannabis did not receive enough support in the House to pass its first reading.
The bill proposed to license high quality domestic medicinal cannabis production; and regulate health practitioner controlled gateway access; and facilitate pharmacist dispensing.
Dr Reti said it was necessary to increase and regulate access to medicinal cannabis.
"In July 2018, Labour and National presented their medicinal cannabis bills, which went head to head. Labour passed all the details to regulations that were still to be determined, and we drafted the detail into this bill for public and parliamentary scrutiny, and we committed to retail products on the shelves in one year," he said.
"Two years on, and there are no new medicinal cannabis products on the shelves from this legislation."
Labour MP Sarah Pallett said there are issues with the current practice for accessing medicinal cannabis but this bill will not help.
"This bill seeks to establish a medicinal cannabis scheme that I feel already exists, but the proposed new scheme isn't a better scheme. It does appear to be a worse scheme and a backwards step," she said.
"This new scheme would, sadly, remove the flexibility that we need to keep pace with an emerging industry, the flexibility that we need to enable new businesses making medicinal cannabis to succeed. Obviously, enabling new businesses to succeed, especially in a new field such as this and in Aotearoa New Zealand is really important, as we know."
A bill that has failed to pass a reading debate will not go any further.
RNZ
