The morning after...

I was giving evidence to two committees this morning so was in the Parliament  early again.   The table in my office still had all the papers on it which  I had used in Committee for Stage 2 of the Continuity Bill  during 11 hours of deliberations in three sessions  that started at 5.45pm ( after a chamber introductory debate of almost three hours) on Tuesday and   finished just before 9.00 pm last night.

I  was sent a few pictures of the session as many people in the parliament dropped by to see part of it or watched it at home on Parliament TV.   I was also very touched by the large number of messages I got during and after it - as did my colleague Bruce Crawford who chaired the marathon sessions.

I would not have thought the detail of what took place was  incredibly gripping except perhaps  for constitutional  lawyers and those intrigued by Parliamentary procedure, but it was an innovation in terms of how it was done and where it was done - in the chamber itself . .

The parliament and committee staff - and the civil servants - were fantastic in their support for it.  They were the ones who actually made it happen.