Under the watchful eye of a ceremonially dressed official and in the tense silence of the MPs, the future of bills by members of the New Zealand Parliament is decided by shaking a decorative metal biscuit tin like a lottery drum.
A ceremonial lottery in Parliament, where numbers indicating bills are drawn at random from biscuit boxes, ensures that all MPs have an equal chance to propose bills, but when they will be on the agenda is decided by a faded metal box kept in the Parliament's display case, and this solemn, yet humorous, ritual is regularly organised.
The biscuit box was purchased by a Parliament employee at a Wellington department store in the early 1990s. It was introduced because the lottery is seen as ensuring equal treatment of parliamentary bills, which had previously often been decided through backroom deals and political pressure.
"We ate a biscuit, we found bingo chips numbered one to 90 and that's how the numbers are drawn now, randomly," said David Wilson, clerk of the House of Representatives of the New Zealand Parliament.
Most bills that pass through the New Zealand Parliament do not enter the box because they are submitted by the Government, and it is known in advance that they will be voted on by MPs from the ruling parties.
But one day every other Sunday when Parliament is in session, bills are debated individually by the MPs themselves, drawn from the biscuit box.
All MPs who are not ministers are allowed to write the name of one bill on a slip of paper, along with a number. The number is drawn from a box by someone at random, including schoolchildren visiting Parliament or tourists.
Visitors to Parliament can buy mugs and socks with the pattern of the official biscuit tin in its souvenir shop.
That lottery has produced some of New Zealand's most significant laws: laws legalizing marriage equality and euthanasia were drawn from the cookie jar, and this week's bill introduces clear fees for sending money abroad to help foreign workers who send money to their families abroad, and a bill to ban the "misuse" and littering of military decorations.
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