Marathon session on Auckland bill comes to an end

A marathon session of Parliament to bring in the first stages of an Auckland "super council" has ended after the Government figured out a way to short circuit the Opposition's delaying tactics.

Labour dragged out the debate - known as filibustering - on two bills to set up a single council in Auckland, but the Government introduced its own amendments to gazump Labour's efforts.

The Government put Parliament into urgency on Wednesday to pass the bills -- one through all its stages and the other for a first reading and then to a special select committee for scrutiny and public submissions.

It finally came to a close at 9.40pm this evening amidst noisy debate and arguments about Parliament's procedure.

The bill that is now law sets up a transition agency to manage the changes.

The second bill outlines the broad structure of the new council and how it will be elected.

Labour agrees in principle to a unitary council but is demanding a referendum so Aucklanders have the final say and stretched out debates to make a political point.

The most effective delaying tactic was tabling thousand of amendments -- many of them ludicrous -- each of which had to be voted on.

With each vote taking around a minute on each amendment, Labour MPs were initially picking they could force Parliament to resume on Monday and sit on into the week.

However on Saturday afternoon the Government figured out a procedural way to stop the votes going ahead.

This had Local Government Minister Rodney Hide putting forward a minor amendment to each part of his legislation.

Under Parliament's rules all of the other amendments were ruled out as MPs had all ready agreed on the issue before it.

Labour whip Darren Hughes told NZPA the opposition had been trying to force the Government into giving the public a say.

Aucklanders by a margin of two to one did not feel they had been consulted over the bill, he said.

He rejected the suggestion such things as tabling amendments changing a single date or word were turning Parliament into a farce, saying the Opposition's actions were all within Parliament's rules.

"It's the Government that's following no process here," he said.

Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee said it was the Opposition's right to filibuster.

"We're not complaining about that," he told NZPA.

"What I'm finding a little bit annoying is the trivialising of something that is so important for the future of 1.5 million New Zealanders."

Thousands of amendments were lodged; part two of the first bill was 149 words long but 825 amendments to it were put up.

Some of the classic delaying tactics came from veteran Labour MP George Hawkins, who yesterday suggested a range of names for the planned council, including the Sons and Daughters of Maui, the Sisters and Brothers of Maui and the Cousins and Aunts and Uncles of Maui.

Towards the end of the debate on the first bill Labour was down to just 25 votes. It currently has 42 MPs.

National maintained it had 58 votes, though Labour questioned whether that many MPs remained within Parliament's buildings.

At the final vote Labour said it had 42 votes.

- NZPA