There’s no denying it’s been a year of great change in Parliament – 2023 began with a brand new Prime Minister, and ended with another new Prime Minister, a new Government and a new Speaker.
So much has happened that it’s almost hard to believe there were three months without the house sitting (during the election and subsequent period of government formation). So The House offers a recap by way of this audio compilation below.
Not everything made it into the audio version, so here we summarise some of the highlights from our coverage. There were estimates hearings broken down, ministerial grillings unpacked, Question Time tactics fleshed out, and select committees dissected. Not only that but The House looked at the ways select committees tweak legislation. There was also an explainer on the very different way that MPs cast a Personal Vote on conscience issues (sex and alcohol-adjacent topics mostly).
The final thing Parliament did before it adjourned for October’s general election was agree on some alterations to the rules that will apply in the 54th Parliament. These are changes that the parties and the clerks have been working on since last year. Some of those MPs spoke about the changes, and interestingly about what changes they did not achieve.
We went behind the scenes with the work of people who make parts of this place work – people like Maika Te Amo, the head of Parliament’s Māori Language Service whose work is in demand more than ever because of an increased appetite to learn te reo Māori among members and staff from different parts of the Parliamentary system; or Rachel Hayward who holds two official titles simultaneously: Secretary of the Cabinet and Clerk of the Executive Council – two interlinked and overlapping roles.
Because we look at the ways the public engages with Parliament, The House also offered a look at four activists who have long participated in the Parliament space – in protests, delivering petitions, submitting at select committees and mo – from single or multiple issue campaigners to the lifelong activist who became an MP and got out the other side with activism intact.
