Office of the Speaker

16 June 2014

New Zealand Parliament hosts study programme for Pacific parliamentary staff

Parliamentary staff from across the Pacific will be hosted by the Office of the Clerk for the 4th New Zealand Parliamentary Study Programme being held in Wellington from 16 to 20 June 2014.

The purpose of the one week programme is to provide an overview of the New Zealand Parliament and political system. The focus will be on the core roles of the House and its committees in law-making, scrutiny and oversight. Participants will see the different aspects of the New Zealand Parliament in action and meet with staff and members of Parliament.

“I am delighted by the strong uptake of places on this year’s study programme” says Rt Hon David Carter, Speaker of the House of Representatives. “Participation in the programme helps to build governance capacity in the Pacific and provides an important professional development opportunity for staff. The New Zealand Parliament has a special relationship with the Pacific and our study programme is invaluable in growing these links.”

The programme includes practical sessions in order to share the experiences of parliaments across the Pacific region and for participants to explore their own areas of interests in parliamentary procedure. Participants will deliver a short presentation to New Zealand parliamentary staff on an issue, either administrative or parliamentary, that their parliament is currently facing.

This year the study programme will include participants from Bougainville, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. They will also be joined by two participants from Fiji and three participants from the Parliament of Bangladesh, as part of their ongoing parliamentary strengthening initiatives.

ENDS

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