Heather Roy wastes $10,000 of taxpayers money

ACT MP Heather Roy is constantly complaining that the Labour Party is wasting a lot of time debating a bill in parliament that is ahead of her own bill on student associations, on the Order Paper. The bill aims to amend the Royal Society of New Zealand Act 1997. However, as Roy often notes, Parliament coats $450,000 an hour to run, and she is sick to death of Labour's filibustering on a bill to prevent her own one passing.

So what does Roy do? She asks a series of questions in Parliament about the Royal Society on Members Day - at question time. Her questions and associated responses took 7.16 minutes of Parliaments time and we learned... well nothing at all really.

As well as wasting questions in the House that others could have answered instead, the time cost the taxpayer nearly $53,000.

What a waste.

VSM bill won't be passed before the election

Students will continue to get freedom to choose – at least when they enrol this year for summer school and early next year - whether to opt out of student association membership or remain members (as opposed to having to decide whether to join) as it looks like the VSM bill, which would make student association membership voluntary, will not be passed before the election in November.

Act MP Heather Roy, who is to quit parliament at the election, looks like she’s been filibustered. Filibustering is when lots of speeches are made in parliament on a bill for a great length of time to delay passage of dodgy legislation. Like the VSM bill.

Phil Goff has said Labour will filibuster right up to the election if it has to.

Today was Members Day. As Roy’s bill is a members bill, it can only be debated every second Wednesday, which is Members Day. Tonight after parliament finished, Heather Roy – who was on House duty for her party so had to be in the House for Members Day - drowned her filibustering sorrows by listening to Radio One – a station owned by Otago University Students’ Association, under threat because of her bill.

Because the government refuses to adopt Roy’s bill, it is a Members bill. However there is a bill called the Royal Society Amendment Bill which is taking up a lot of time. This bill has 21 clauses and they are up to clause 11. Each clause can be debated for an hour – so that’s around 10 more hours to be debated before the third reading, which itself would take a couple of hours - and then there are two more local bills due back from committee to take precedence on the Order Paper.

Yet time will run out as there is not enough hours of Members Day time before the election even if the Government doesn’t take urgency.

The bill won't go away - it can be picked up by another member after the election. Labour is hoping that it will have less support after the election. Meanwhile, a bill that amends the Royal Society of New Zealand Act 1997, by incorporating the humanities into the objects and functions of the Society; changing the name of the Academy Council to the Academy Executive Committee; amending the standard for the election of Companions of the Society; and amending the election process for Councillors of the Society ( ok, that`ll do), has been very good for students.

Given that the bill may not be passed before it commencement date of 1 January 2012, or when students enrol for 2012, perhaps it is time for Heather Roy to pull the bill so that other bills can be debated and passed on Members Days. After all, it costs $450,000 an hour to run Parliament and pulling the bill would only assist in passing legislation, thus using the time more effectively. Makes sense, really.

However, the current filibustering is a much more effective use of time than passing the VSM legislation that nobody except a handful of politicians and their rag-tag bunch of supporters want. Nearly all of these supporters won’t even be attending university from 2012.

Heather Roy’s bill costs taxpayers $453,000 an hour – just like every other irrelevant bill does

Heather Roy is upset that her bill that aims to change membership of student associations’ from compulsory to voluntary is making slow progress in the House. She says:

Since December 8th last year Labour have filibustered the bill - the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill - every members day since then…and is costing taxpayers over $453,000 – the same cost as a Hone Harawira Te Tai Tokerau by-election – every hour that Parliament sits.

ACT's figure was provided by the Parliamentary Library which took the cost of wages for all MPs and Parliamentary staff and divided it by the average number of hours Parliament sits in a year. Wonder how much that cost to provide?

Member’s bills are the only mechanism backbench MPs have to raise issues they feel strongly about. Filibustering is the only mechanism opposition MPs have to raise issues relating to members bills they feel strongly opposed to and are unable to vote down – once their supplementary order papers have been summarily rejected.

By filibustering, Labour is actually representing the voters and the majority of submitters to a select committee who oppose this bill.

If Heather Roy is so concerned about time wasting, she has several options: Withdraw her bill, convince the government to make it a government bill, or get cross-party support like the government did with the anti-smacking legislation.

Roy claims her bill has cost the country millions of dollars – but it is not money that could have been spent on health, education and funding students associations, as Parliament would have sat anyway.

But this bill is so important to Heather Roy that she is willing to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers money by refusing to withdraw it, or amend it, while complaining of taxpayers money being wasted because other bills can’t be debated instead.

And isn't it good that this lame speech of ACT MP Hilary Calvert only took 48 seconds. Pity, according to Heather Roy, it cost the taxpayer more than $6,000.

Otago University students' association sale

Otago University Students' Association is for sale on Trade Me. Get in quick! Also included in the sale is a student executive and wider network that represents and advocates for students to the University, wider Dunedin community, Government and national media. A student general meeting will ratify the sale.

Voluntary Student Membership and freedom of association

updated
As the Government is not going into urgency today, it is members day, and the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill to allow for voluntary membership of student unions will have its first reading. I am in two minds about the bill. I see merits in both arguments.

Many have argued that people should not be compelled to belong to any union. In fact no-one is compelled to belong to a student union. Those who don't want to belong to a student union don't have to study. Those who must study don't have to take part in the services provided by student unions if they are opposed, in principle to membership. I don't see any reason why students can't pay the fee and campaign to opt out of membership.Opting in means having a choice to pay a fee for membership in most cases, opting out means having a choice whether to be a member, thus exercising freedom of association.

But despite the bill's title, VSM proponents -many of who are not students - are not focused on freedom of association nor are they opposed to student union membership per se. It's the fact that students must pay a membership fee that they are opposed to, and it is this that the bill would remove, by amending Section 229 of the Education Act.

6. New section 229 substituted
Section 229 is repealed and the following section substituted:Section 229 is repealed and the following section substituted:
229 Voluntary membership of students’ associations
1) No person, including any tertiary institution or any association of students, may require any student or exert undue influence on any student—

(a) to become or not become a member of any association of students; or

(b) to pay any money to any association of students, or to any other person in lieu of such fees.

So this debate is not about membership, it is not about provision of services, it is about being forced to pay money for the membership that provides those services, and the bill frames this in the context of student union membership, not its financial component.

If section 6 (1)b of the bill was deleted, it would not restrict freedom of association - but the same freedom would not apply to payment of student union fees. So this freedom of association argument is a bit of a red herring when the real issue is the freedom to pay a student union fee. The bill also conflates ACT's concern with freedom of association with student service provision and membership of the university community.

What I find ironic in this debate is the very people who support VSM, predominately students, will read the fully funded student media -Salient, Critic etc, utilise Student Job Search, which is fully funded co-funded by the student union fee with the balance being paid by the Government - or go on Debating Society trips which are funded with a contribution from a membership fee they don't want to pay. They even support compulsory unionism of a kind.

Before you pro VSM debaters get a little horrified, I'll declare that I have bit of time for the Victoria University Debating Society - I took part in a recent debate it organised. So I'm most pleased to advise that their next public debate is going to be on this very issue of VSM on Monday 6.30pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Old Government Buildings in Pipitea Campus.Entry is free - and you can choose whether you want to be there or not.Political party representatives will be Peter McCaffrey (affirmative - supports VSM) and Max Hardy (negative). Student debaters are Stephen Whittington (affirmative)and Seb Templeton (negative). MPs are David Garrett and one other to be confirmed.