Darren Hughes's reply to the government motion effectively closing the parliament until February next year was quite amusing, certainly better than the "witty" exchange between Gerry Brownlee and David Parker as a result of Wednesday's eleventh question.
The speech included some stats Opposition members have been keeping tabs on:
1. 38% of parliamentary sitting time has been under urgency since the last election.
2. 25% of all bills passed into law were bills from the previous (Labour) government.
3. National introduced 59 bills, but 60% of them had a truncated select committee process, i.e. didn't go to the committee for the full length of time, or committees had to meet at the same time the House was sitting.
Darren says:
They are of course the bills we got to see. One of the innovations this year was to debate bills no-one had ever seen before, apart from the government.
He also spoke about John Key's personal brand of leadership:
It has been a year where a lot of ideas have been run up the flag pole, only to be run back down again or left at half-mast as the political winds change constantly... We get treated to the David Letterman show every day during Question Time without the applause, the humour, the comedy, or the intellect.
He also rounds Bill English up as the gift that keeps on giving, or "the gift that keeps on taking" at least.
There were also some interesting stats to emerge from Lockwood's own speech:
1. The House sat for 565 hours and 49 minutes, 88 hours longer than last year.
2. 66 government bills have been passed.
3. No private members' bills have passed.
4. 22,920 written questions were submitted.
Lockwood had this to say about Auckland's super city trials in the House:
But one record I wouldn't want to see members try to break in future years was the 30,046 amendments to the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Bill passed in May under urgency after 33 hours in the committee stage. Only 16 of those 30,046 amendments were agreed to, 29,084 of them were ruled out of order, 946 were defeated, [all of] which meant an awful lot of voting.
This year's been very good for the government. While they can't take all the credit, it's apparent Key's broadly relaxed manner (the antithesis of Clark's style, particularly in the last 3 years) has served him well. Whether this pragmatism will translate in his second year remains to be seen.
Even with his popularity at almost record levels, his poll sensitivities will tell him that if 40% of the electorate think he's more style than substance (as reported in Wednesday's Dominion Post), there's a problem. Besides that, the free reign he's given some in his cabinet has cost him. Nick Smith's management of both the ACC and Environment portfolios is but one example of a growing problem with confidence in Key Inc.
It has been Key's dream since boyhood to be prime minister of Niw Ziland, and now he is. But where's the vision? The plan? The JPK dream? The reality is that John Phillip Key is without one.
But Don Brash isn't, he has a plan. And Bill English has a budget. Next year, and with Adult and Community Education behind them, the screws will come down on other 'non-essentials'. English will almost certainly be forced to reduce the level of borrowing and that will mean cuts. There's only so much fat to trim before you hit muscle. It'll be interesting to watch.
Merry Christmas everyone.