“The ACT Party is the only party in Parliament to take the vital role MPs play as law makers seriously,” says ACT Deputy Leader and Party Whip Brooke van Velden.

“Parliament has been in urgency for three days as Labour rushed through laws without following the full and proper process.

“As urgency inched towards the weekend, MPs across the House stopped debating the laws properly with only ACT taking the debates seriously. MPs from Labour and National put being home for the weekend ahead of scrutiny.

“Depending on the circumstance, Bills can be debated for 5 or 10 minutes by each MP. Labour and National MPs were making speeches that were sometimes less than 30 secs.

“Labour backbench MP Glenn Bennett said “This is a bill. This is the House and I commend it.” That was his full speech. When the Speaker called on National MP Chris Penk to take a call he simply said “Yes I am” and added nothing else.

“The laws we pass in Parliament have real impact on people’s lives, they deserve thorough scrutiny. ACT is proud to have been a consistent voice for the people who asked us to represent them in this House.’

“Members of Parliament have a duty to scrutinise legislation. New Zealanders were badly let down today.

“These are people who are paid six figure salaries with taxpayers’ money. They took the piss so they could have the weekend off.

“ACT says taxpayers deserve far better from the elected representatives.”

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