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Ryan Bridge: Parliament's backlog is becoming a problem · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This past week is proof, I think, a four-year parliamentary
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: term is probably a good idea. Let's forget for a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: second that elections disrupt things like the housing market. People
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: get scared off buying for fear of the unknown. Who
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: knows what government will get in and what they will
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: do to the price of a house. Same goes for
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: business decisions. Should I buy that extra tractor if some
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: pro-regulation party gets around the cabinet table? It stymies investment.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: But the bigger problem, and we've seen it with this
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: quite frankly farcical social media ban announcement this week, is legislation.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The Nats called Labour's bluff and announced this bill. Then
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Labour called the Nats' bluff yesterday and said they'd support
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a first reading before the election, only for the Nats
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to turn around and say, oh no, we actually don't
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: have time this term. There is right now a 100-bill
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: logjam before Parliament. Potential new laws waiting to get debated,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: sitting there in Parliament collecting dust. It's like the Southern
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Motorway on pretty much any day of the week at
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: any time. She's backed up like a dump truck. RMA
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: reform is a priority for the government. They've said that.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: But outside that, she's a pretty ropey agenda heading into
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: election time. Politics at election time actually gets in the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: way of what Parliament is supposed to do, which is
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: debate and then pass laws. City deals get ripped up
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: on the fly during campaigns. Mayors across the country get butthurt.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: This is not to say elections are bad for democracy,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: they are the basis of it, but too many, too often,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: probably doing more harm than good.