Parliament has adjourned for the summer recess and Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee has crunched the numbers on its performance.It sat for 31 weeks this year, one week more than last year, and during that time:* 83 government bills were passed into law;
Parliament has adjourned for the summer recess and Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee has crunched the numbers on its performance.
It sat for 31 weeks this year, one week more than last year, and during that time:
* 83 government bills were passed into law;
* A further 63 passed first readings and were sent to select committees, they are still in the pipeline;
* Ministers answered 1053 oral questions compared with 1038 last year;
* Prime Minister John Key answered the most (109) followed by Finance Minister Bill English (92), Health Minister Tony Ryall (48) and Education Minister Anne Tolley (47);
* Ministers were asked 37,910 written questions compared with 18,566 last year;
* Mrs Tolley was asked the most (16,620) followed by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett (9920) and Police Minister Judith Collins (3265);
Mr Brownlee's highlights were the tax measures in the budget, employment law reform, free trade agreements with Malaysia and Hong Kong, the Electricity Industry Act which improves retail competition, the Infrastructure Bill which removes barriers to development, the New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill and the series of Acts which changed Auckland's local governance, and electoral legislation for next year's general election and the referendum on MMP.
Parliament sits again on February 8 next year.
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