Parliament returns this year with a day full of votes of confidence and urgent legislation

ANALYSIS: The days get shorter, the nights get colder, and politicians go back to work.

MPs arrive in Wellington on Tuesday morning for the first day of Parliament in 2021, with a day packed with meetings, clashes and a vote of confidence on the calendar.

The main item on the agenda is a new law to stop local referendums that will abolish Maori districts and a vote of no confidence in the Speaker.

This is the first time that Parliament has met since early December, shortly after Labor’s resounding victory in the elections.

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National will seek to recover the narrative when the House returns. Since the party is not in government, it has far fewer opportunities to make the news and capture voters when Parliament is in recess.

With the session of Parliament, you have the opportunity to scrutinize the Government under the great attention of the media, through Question Time, select committees and the general chaos of the House.

National is likely to use Question Time to pressure the government on the availability of vaccines in New Zealand. Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said late last year that New Zealand would be at the forefront of the vaccine queue, but none have reached New Zealand yet.

National or the Green Party may also want to pressure the government on the news that an Air New Zealand subsidiary was assisting the Saudi Arabian Navy, which is currently imposing a blockade of Yemen that is causing a humanitarian crisis in the country.

Right after question time at 2 p.m., National intends to resurrect a story from late last year and attempt a no-confidence vote on spokesman Trevor Mallard over a debacle that involved a member of the parliamentary staff. Mallard apologized late last year after wrongly hinting that the employee had been charged with rape and that the taxpayer ended up paying the $ 330,000 in legal costs.

National won’t have the numbers to force the president to resign – Mallard’s Labor Party has an absolute majority, meaning it can win any vote – but it will intend to use the motion to keep the pressure on Mallard, a man with many party members. dislike.

When the motion fails, Parliament will rush to debate a new government bill that eliminates the possibility of local referendums preventing the creation of Maori districts. These provisions only existed for Maori districts, not general districts, and the Government is ready to act quickly before the 2022 local body elections. National is not expected to support the change.

Later there will be several “keynote speeches” from the new MPs elected last year: Mark Cameron, James McDowall, Karen Chhour and Toni Severin from ACT, followed by Emily Henderson, Gaurav Sharma, Sarah Pallett and Glen Bennett from Labor.

But a lot will also happen outside of the debating chamber.

MPs will begin their morning in “caucus meetings,” a meeting that each party has with all of its MPs. Journalists generally catch National and Labor MPs on their way to these for short “meetings” (press conferences), so expect some early political headlines from them.

And the cabinet is also meeting, which means Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will hold her regular post-cabinet press conference at around 4pm.

Audio provided by RNZ.