Parliament's Education and Workforce Committee has been considering the plight of undocumented Tuvaluans living in New Zealand without the right to work or to gain residency.

Parliament's Education and Workforce Committee has been considering the plight of people who migrated to New Zealand from Tuvalu and live here without the legal status that would allow them the right to work or to gain residency.

It follows on from a report on undocumented Tuvaluans in the country by Unitec, whose authors and members of the Tuvalu community appeared before the committee last month.

One of them was Paani Laupepa who spoke on behalf of this community, people doing whatever work was on offer.

"We call them 'hope seekers' not 'overstayers', because there's always that negative connotation attached to that term, 'overstayers'.

"Having been one myself, I can speak from my heart telling you how hard it is, since we are always viewed as lawbreakers, and in that negative sense people take advantage of us, unscrupulous employers," Laupepa explained.

"But the fact of the matter is we are hard working people trying to build a life here in New Zealand. We get up and go to work every day, we pay our fair share of taxes, we rent our own homes, pay our own rent, benefit the landlords. We pay for the power, the internet, the utilities, the ACC, even the fuel levy."

Those hope seekers who do not have visas are unable to access a wide range of services and benefits available to residents of this country and citizens. What's more, they remain at constant risk of deportation. According to the Unitec report, "young people are particularly disadvantaged and trapped under the current visa/residence system, potentially facing a very difficult future".

The select committee wanted to know the human rights implications, so asked a representative of the Human Rights Commission for a briefing. The lead advisor to the Race Relations Commissioner, Rachel O'Connor told the committee that the Commission is very concerned about what on face value are consistent breaches of human rights law.

"We're concerned about a number of the examples that are raised in the report, particularly where there are unmet rights particularly in relation to health, housing, education and employment. So we would encourage the committee to particularly consider the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child…

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Two bills - one addressing the supermarket duopoly, the other providing for a fourth round of Covid vaccination - are set for their second reading, committee stage and third readings this week.

Today is the Winter Solstice and the weather may be downright bleak, but there's a quiet sense of urgency in the House.

The Government is looking to get a bunch of bills processed before Parliament adjourns for a three-week break from the week after next.

Two of the bills - one dealing with anti-competitive conduct by big supermarket chains, the other providing for a fourth round of Covid-19 vaccination - are set to move through their second reading, committee stage and third readings this week.

The Medicines Amendment Bill (No 2) proposes to insert a new clause into the Medicines Act 1981 to provide ongoing population protection against Covid-19; it also seeks to provide the Director-General of Health with adaptable processes for dealing with medicines and medical devices as the pandemic evolves.

"This bill deals with the fourth dose of the vaccine. So, in order to allow New Zealanders to exercise the choice to have a fourth dose of the vaccine, we need a minor amendment of the Medicines Act," said the Government's Leader of the House, Chris Hipkins.

"Our Medicines Act is pretty out of date. A lot of countries are already offering fourth doses without the need for legislative change. Unfortunately in New Zealand, because of the nature of our antiquated Medicines legislation we have to have a minor amendment through parliament to allow for that."

The current public health challenge with Covid-19 vaccination, as opposed to one-off type vaccines - is because it's an ongoing thing.

"I wouldn't say that we're always going to be doing this, but for now, our best shot, or our best option is to give people the chance to get a fourth dose," Hipkins said, adding that it is not compulsory.

Vaccination against Covid has been found to reduce the possibility of people getting severely ill from the virus.

On this day, when daylight hours are shortest and the cold is in their bones, people can be forgiven for going through the motions. It's somehow reassuring that MPs might be getting something useful done.

Another bill on the cards this week, after a shortened select committee process because of the degree of urgency around it, is the Commerce (Grocery Sector Covenants) Amendment Bill…

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You might recognise him by his voice, so long as he is shouting. But despite his role being front-and-centre at Parliament you might be surprised what he does, and what he can do.

You'll probably hear him before you see him, and his cry of "Mr Speaker!" sometimes startles MPs who have congregated in the debating chamber for the start of the sitting day.

Steve Streefkerk is Parliament's Serjeant-at-Arms, heading the procession into the House, carrying on his shoulder a large, ornate golden mace, leading Parliament's Speaker and others into the chamber.

He's there to formally kick things off, and runs a team that works to assist Parliament in doing its business, providing support to the presiding officers, the Speaker, Clerk and Members of Parliament "to make sure they have everything they need in order to deliver their services".

It's a ceremonial role but there's a lot more to it, as the Serjeant-at-Arms also has the job of Manager of Business Continuity and Chamber Operations at Parliament. It includes overseeing disaster-preparedness, monitoring the attendance of MPs and overseeing the various feeds into Parliament TV, among other things.

The Serjeant-at-Arms brings a measure of stability and security to the business of Parliament, and has the power to summon people to Parliament, or facilitate the ejection of someone who needs to be kicked out. The Serjeant can also participate in select committees if a chairperson requires assistance to deal with misconduct by someone attending. Very rarely has he been required to perform these functions, although the Covid-19 pandemic produced some occasions.

Working to help Parliament's critical services function in times of disruption is a major part of the business continuity role, Streefkerk said. The pandemic presented an unprecedented, major disruption.

"We proved our plans during the Covid times and the lockdowns when we continued to deliver our critical services to make sure that the institution of Parliament could still function.

"There were times when we sat with reduced members and reduced staff support. But the House sat. We were there providing the support that we needed to do."

Streefkerk loves this job and the constant challenge it offers of attending to moving parts.

"Every sitting day is different, and you never know what's going to come up in the House. And on non-sitting days, or when I'm not involved in the House, I've got plenty of other responsibilities and activities to keep me focused.

"I've got a great team that provides support to me - either permanent staff or the chamber team who are part-time. My overall team is about 16-strong at the moment."…

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The House chats with current and former parliamentary interns from Steven Levine's Victoria University of Wellington internship programme about starting work at the very centre of things.

Parliament is an unusual creature. It is a hundred different ecosystems living as an organism to achieve something unusual: a smoothly functional democratic government.

Judging by either history or international experience that is harder to pull off than it ought to be.

Our Parliament and government achieve every day what many countries never quite seem to manage. That doesn't happen by accident and we shouldn't take it for granted

Listen to Rachael White, Anna Heath, Meg Lamb and Anna-Grace Somerfield on the House

Maintaining government and governance takes both effort and smarts. Consequently, Government and Parliament enjoy an unusual concentration of some of the finest minds in the country. And no, I'm not describing MPs (though they also include some proper clever people).

I'm thinking of the staff; the hot shots from the many government ministries and entities who act as seconded liaisons in ministers' offices. The advisors and comms staff who include some of our best (former) journalists. The clerks and their kin who actually run Parliament; and the many staff who make MPs look good by doing a lot of their thinking for them.

You might expect a lot of aging civil servants (like in Yes Minister), but the opposite is more often the case. Running a country is a relentless and tiring occupation and many staff are relatively young. Some very much so.

For example this last week I met with four recent or current students from Victoria University of Wellington who have a lot in common: all of them are participants, past or current in an internship programme at Parliament that is run for top students from the University.

The internship is organised by a much admired local academic, Professor Stephen Levine (who coincidentally was the focus of a function this week to celebrate 50 years of teaching politics at VUW).

Rachael White, Anna Heath, Meg Lamb and Anna-Grace Somerfield all majored in politics, but that isn't actually a prerequisite for the internship.

Two of them are now interning with MPs (Green's Jan Logie and Labour's MP Ginny Andersen) and two interned last year and are now staff; one with the Shadow Leader of the House, National's Chris Bishop and one in the Labour Party Leader's Office (and yes, that is different to the Prime Minister's office).

The House talked to them about what that is like, how they came to be there and what they plan next. You can hear what they had to say in the audio above.

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A proposed member's bill addressing a power imbalance that prevents communities taking steps to develop public health measures on alcohol use could bypass the ballot process if enough MPs agreed.

A proposed member's bill that addresses a power imbalance preventing communities taking steps to develop public health measures around alcohol use could potentially bypass the ballot process.

That would be if 61 non-executive members of parliament agreed to it, but going on past form - in which New Zealand MPs have been reluctant to legislate against the burgeoning promotion and provision of alcohol in his country - there's no guarantee.

There are currently several member's bills in the parliament system that relate to alcohol, either up for first reading or yet to be picked from the ballot. Whereas most of these look to remove restrictions on where and when people can buy alcohol, only one bill addresses the harm caused to communities by alcohol.

Chlöe Swarbrick of the Greens has submitted the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Harm Minimisation) Amendment Bill to the ballot. This bill abolishes appeals on local alcohol policies in order to provide proper local control over alcohol regulation. The MP described the appeals process as an anomaly in regulation that governs how people access potentially harmful substances.

The Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 was billed at the time as empowering local communities to put in place alcohol policies to regulate things like how many bottle shops are in their area. But in practice, because of that special appeals process, commercial interests have frustrated attempts to protect communities.

"The appeals process has meant that particularly in the cases of communities trying to impose rules around how they want alcohol accessed that corporate interests have been able to override them and tie them up in court. That's meant that both Auckland and Christchurch city councils have spent in excess of $1,000,000 each in trying to put local alcohol policies in place," Swarbrick said.

"Christchurch ended up giving up, where Auckland is seven years down the track, still trying to implement that local alcohol policy."

In three decades or so since alcohol advertising became legal in New Zealand, booze has become increasingly available in communities, such as in supermarkets and grocery stores.

The second part of Swarbrick's Bill implements a number of the recommendations of the 2014 Ministerial Forum on Alcohol Advertising and Sponsorship, particularly towards ending alcohol advertising in sports and alcohol sponsorship for broadcast sports…

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The latest from the House

The fight for people's right to be able to buy alcohol is very much alive in Parliament.

Among a bunch of booze-related members' bills currently on Parliament's agenda, or proposed members' bills still waiting on the ballot, at least two look to close the gap on the few remaining days of the year when alcohol is not for sale.

One of the three member's bills picked from the biscuit tin last month was the Repeal of Good Friday and Easter Sunday as Restricted Trading Days (Shop Trading and Sale of Alcohol) Amendment Bill introduced by the ACT Party MP Chris Baillie.

As its name signals, the legislation is aimed at removing the restriction on selling of alcohol on the two statutory holidays at Easter time. You may wonder why the MP has stopped at those two when there is one other Christian commemoration-based stat holiday when alcohol cannot be sold. That's Christmas Day of course. As it happens, another MP already thought of that.

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty's Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Sales on Anzac Day Morning, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Day) Amendment Bill was deposited in the member's bills ballot last year, appropriately around Easter Time. It looks to allow licensed businesses already permitted to open on those days to be able to sell alcohol.

Unlike Baillie's Bill, McAnulty's is yet to get picked from the tin. One wonders if there may be scope for the two Bills to somehow weld together. This would effectively end restrictions on which days alcohol can be bought. If enough MPs (61 backbenchers) support a prospective member's bill it can skip the ballot and jump straight onto the Order Paper.

Other bills look to get more specific about where there are still impediments on getting a drink.

National MP Ian McKelvie's Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for Race Meetings) Amendment Bill is on the order paper for its first reading. This bill provides an exemption from restrictions in section 235 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 for racing clubs on the days of race meetings if the consumption of alcohol takes place at a time when the club holds either an on-licence or an on-site special licence that applies to the race meeting.

Another National MP, Stuart Smith, has submitted the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Cellar Door Tasting) Amendment Bill to the ballot. It allows wineries to charge visitors for tastings of their wine, and adds an off-licence category for wineries holding an on-licence.

If all this sounds like MPs are too preoccupied with making it easier to get drunk, some members are concerned about the harm caused to communities by alcohol. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In the current Parliament major reforms are coming along almost as frequently as buses. This week there are two separate and equally momentous legislative reform bills on the agenda.

This week in Parliament is a member's week, which means that debate on Wednesday evening will be devoted to bills suggested by backbench MPs.

Despite losing a whole day of debating to member's bills the government's agenda this week still includes two separate and momentous legislative reforms on the agenda.

Listen to Michael Wood outline the major events in Parliament's debating chamber this week

Image from an information campaign around Three Waters Reform

Most Parliaments include one or two big reform efforts. Note: each three year session between elections is a different parliament - this Parliament is the 53rd.

Historically left-wing governments tend to undertake more of them than conservative governments do. (Not always but often).

The current Government is undertaking major legislative reform on scale though. There are currently a number of different major packages of reform before the House and a number of others have been agreed already.

The previous (52nd) parliament was busy, but a number of desired changes were presumably stymied by being in coalition with New Zealand First, so now they are playing catch-up.

This week begins with the final (third reading) debate on the reworking of the public health sector via the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill. This bill will then become law once assented to by the Governor General. Pae Ora abolishes the current system of local DHBs and centralises health management.

And the week ends with the first reading on Thursday of the Water Services Entities Bill, which is a significant aspect of the Three Waters reform.

Three Waters centralises drinking water, wastewater and storm-water governance on the basis that even large councils are struggling to afford increasingly urgent upgrades to their local water systems.

The water entities bill will head to Select Committee to join other major legislation currently under consideration such as fair pay agreements, firearms controls, and grocery sector control efforts.

The 53rd Parliament must be an exciting (and possibly exhausting) place to be an MP.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

MPs spend many hours shouting past each other about the budget, but have tactics and objectives behind all the hubbub. Phil Smith dissects the year's first budget debate-fest - the eight hour long Budget Debate.

Parliament polished off the initial budget debate this week. That may not sound difficult but the eight-hour long event is often spread languorously across a few weeks. Getting through it all in a couple of days is impressive.

Party leaders had an initial chance to laud or lament the plan on Budget Day - not an easy task as they mostly hadn't had a chance to read it quite yet.

When they were done the debate was paused to deal with related legislation, and then a week of recess, which allowed some locally-oriented selling and slamming.

This week, when MPs returned to Parliament, they had had time to get more familiar with the budget and hone their arguments.

Listen to the radio version of this story with audio form the Budget Debate.

It won't surprise you to know that Budget debates aren't a carefully focussed discussion of the spending decisions and plans that lie behind a budget.

Achieving a greater level of detail is the point of the extensive Estimates Hearings that are held by ALL TWELVE specialist subject select committees. In fact they have already begun.

Budget debate speeches are mostly about politics and the MPs are largely talking past one another. This isn't surprising or necessarily bad, it's just that the parties have different objectives. So let's have a quick look at some of those and how they play out.

Government: The Sell

For MPs from a governing party the debate is primarily an opportunity to highlight and seek attention for specific aspects of the budget.

In any budget there are hundreds of things that could be publicised and most of them remain mysteries to most of the public. Did you know, for example, that this budget has cash targeted at eating disorders, dental care for the poor, a new building at Parliament, sexual assault, fighting organised crime, a gun registry, or for broadcasting to the pacific?

Budgets are deep and wide, and usually poorly understood, so MPs try to find some attention for them however they can.

For MPs that are government ministers their speeches are often a chance to highlight funding decisions within their ambit - possibly even things they fought hard to get included in the final plan.

And for any governing party MP there will likely be things that relate to their own communities of interest or constituencies to focus on, or things in their own area of passion.

All that 'selling' is job number one…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details