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The Greens In Parliament


The Green MPs do a lot of valuable work in Parliament, not all of which is obvious from the outside. Here you can find out what they've been up to.

 

The Workings of Parliament

Sitting Days and Times
Parliament normally sits 2.00pm - 6.00pm & 7.30pm - 10.00pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 2.00pm - 6.00pm on Thursdays.

Daily Business
The agenda for the daily business of Parliament is given in the Order Paper (PDF), and then reported in Notice Papers which detail the Bills introduced, any petitions, reports or papers presented, the business of select committees and any written questions asked. The entire proceedings of the house are written up in a document called Hansard. You can search or browse it here. The House is controlled by the Speaker according to previous rulings known as Standing Orders. Find out more about how Parliament works on the Parliament's website.

Question Time
Oral questions are asked to Ministers from 2pm to 3pm every day when Parliament is sitting. You can watch a live stream of question time. The daily uncorrected transcripts are published after 5.30pm every day. These are subject to correction and further editing before being archived in Hansard.

Question for Written Answer
Ministers must also answer written questions from MPs. You can search the Questions For Written Answer from 2003 onwards.

Select Committees
The 21 subject area Select committees examine legislation in detail and hold inquiries. There is an archive of select committee reports presented.

Legislation
All Acts of Parliament can be found at: www.legislation.co.nz. The text of Bills should be available in 2003, currently only the Bills Digests (plain english summaries prepared by the Parliamentary Library) are available online.

The Organisation of Parliament

Members of Parliament
There are 120 MPs (62 General electorate MPs, 7 Maori electorate MPs and 51 List MPs). The MMP electoral system has produced a much more diverse and representative line up of MPs. People can contact MPs with their concerns - either their electorate MP or a neighbouring List MP. There is a list of MPs contact details.

 

Government Ministers
Around half of the government MPs hold ministerial portfolios. There are lists of the Cabinet Ministers and their portfolios and the portfolios of the Ministers Outside Cabinet. There is a Cabinet homepage which includes speeches and press releases made by cabinet ministers and their initiatives and biographies. The workings of the cabinet are bound by the Cabinet Manual.