Legal Beagle by Graeme Edgeler

The other side of the issue is that National gets to chair or deputy chair many of the committees (the last Opposition only had one chair) and that many of the committees have 50/50 membership so not the automatic Government majority the last Parliament had. (Which incidentally meant that Labour, Greens and NZ First learned to work well together as in the Education Select Committee dyslexia and autism inquiry.)

As someone who regularly goes to select committees I have noticed that there are often substitute MPs for the named members of the Committee. So surely it is good to have a few spares?

I don't really buy it that this is an issue that actually concerns national. If each select committee has 9 members, National, who have almost half the membership of the house, will get at least three, most likely four in each committee. They can't complain they're not well represented.
More likely that it'll be minor parties that miss out, but given that the only minor parties of any size are in government, probably not such an issue this term.

I'd have thought that as there are less parties represented in Parliament now, they would need less people to cover all party viewpoints on these committees.

Act's David Seymour will be spread a bit thin trying to get his proportional input on diverse committees - he'll be wishing he really was the hologram he so resembles...

Bill English told RNZ this morning that every MP has a 'right' to be on a select committee. Nice try, sunshine.

Act's David Seymour will be spread a bit thin trying to get his proportional input on diverse committees

Nah, about 5 minutes per year should do it.

Simon Bridges: “We are the biggest party, and we are going to use our power to stymie the government, we will oppose, oppose and oppose, and oh my, we will use our muscle on select committies to MAKE THE GOVERNMENT FEEL THE PAIN AND STOP THEIR PROGRAM!!!!!”

Jacinda: “OK Simon…. Well, that puts us in a bind… What can we do?? Ummmm, hang on, is that YOUR signature on the The Review of Standing Orders? Just checking, Bozo.”

The news of the last hour perfectly illustrates the difference between the worlds seen by the press gallery and the one inhabited by their readers (viewers, etc), i.e. everyone else.

Much excitement for five minutes as Nats play hardball on Speaker ("Incredible scenes" tweets Newshub - seriously). Entertaining TV, which is then immediately forgotten, and nobody outside noticed ...

... because Winston is suing National ex-Ministers over his superannuation story.

It's not a reprisal (it's entirely unrelated) but it is very funny. "You wanna be dicks? You've already been dicks, and that's why you're in opposition. Have some more."

Probably old news for those following things today, but news just now is that Select Committee positions have now been raised from 96 to 108... seemingly because Labour didn't have enough MPs present to elect Trevor Mallard as Speaker.

RNZ: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/343269/house-trading-mps-strike-hasty-deal
Stuff: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/98638163/government-forced-to-do-a-deal-with-national-after-failing-to-have-the-numbers-in-the-house

3 govt MPs were not at parliament and not out of the country - "Labour's Poto Williams and Priyanca Radhakrishnan and the Greens' Gareth Hughes". Grrr.

Here's hoping Mallard chastises Nat MP Alistair Scott for swearing allegiance to the Queen and her 'airs and graces' !

RNZ's political editor now saying govt had the numbers after all but were successfully bluffed by the Nats. How embarrassing.

So the Nats are continuing their standard MO of bullshitting at every opportunity. In a sane world, people would stop taking them seriously.

The two Labour MPs and Nat David Carter are at the Commonwealth Parliament Conference and David Parker and Winston at APEC. So all legitimately away on Parliamentary business. The government probably thought the convention that this is accepted in votes would be respected by the Opposition. But maybe because they weren't actually signed up yet made a difference. Or maybe the Nats are just being sore losers.

The Nats might be a more effective opposition than they were a government. Let's hope they have time to get used to it.

Peters’ Pride doesn’t often finish the race.

Some of today's panting opinion pieces did look strangely familiar, so I thought I'd bring up the template, provided here to assist media space-fillers with any further cut and paste reckons. Nothing new under the sun, or on Stuff.

The line about the statute of limitations on blaming Labour was a doozy. 8 more years to go.

Maggie Barry preparing to 'conserve' her chewing gum - one hopes it doesn't lose its flavour in the chamber overnight....

It seems to me that it's not so much National doing their job of putting a spoke in the wheels of government as that Labour didn't really bother for much of the last nine years. Did they ever question whether National were entitled to rely on Todd Barclay's vote when he was away on "leave", just as a for instance?

In any case, NZ seems to be following overseas political trends in the decline of bipartisanship. With USA leading the pack, of course. (HT Iyad El-Baghdadi)

Great info graphic
It looks like reverse entropy,
from amorphous to polarised.
or planetary disc formation,
or maybe just 4th of July fireworks...

You know all those frothers who said they'd leave the country if "she" got in?

At least one of them was telling the truth.

So Ardern is making NZ a better place, just by taking office. More please.

It also reminds me of the wonderful world of Klecksography ...

(above: Rorschach card #10)

The polarisation became visible during the Reagan presidency - widening inequality and the scrapping of the Fairness Doctrine among the factors - but the fuse was lit in the 1960s with the Vietnam War, the Southern Strategy and the Silent Majority. The following decade saw Watergate permanently hardening political cynicism in the US. The 1990s saw the collapse of the USSR - and with it a shared common enemy - and the rise of Newt Gingrich and Fox News.

9/11 could have been another chance to unite against a common enemy, but instead the polarisation further hardened. If the Mueller Inquiry gets Trump and his inner circle impeached or thrown in the slammer, it could be the last straw for his most radical loyalists. There may not be a rerun of Fort Sumter 1861, but all the same, the Troubles might just cross the Atlantic and speak American.

Just on Simon Bridges, what's with all the sudden media referring to him as Shadow Leader of the House, and other National MPs as shadow Ministers? Eg https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/98721388/question-time-confusion-chaos-and-comedy-as-mps-faceoff-for-first-time

I know it's common in Australia, but I don't recall the terminology ever being repeatedly used here by media until National is suddenly in opposition. I bet National loves it, too, because of the impression it creates of who's running stuff.

Surely they are trying to ride the coat tails of Taika Waititi's 'What we do in the shadows'
But Steven Joyce would be merely the 'not-so-slim Shady Finance Minister'!