In the end, was this a “to do” about nothing? 

The social media ban for under 16s is a global bandwagon that we were already late to. 

And by the time it arrived on Monday, it turns out the party that wrote it didn't have the numbers. 

Of a three-party Government, two parties wouldn’t back it and so they went to the major party on the other side of the House. 

They had 79 questions. No one has 79 questions, and the second one, even if you did have 79 questions, should not be about Te Tiriti. 

So, so far, so messy. And you can quite rightly ask the question at this stage whether our Parliament is in fact wildly out of step with the majority of New Zealand. 

My gut says a ban is popular. No, it is not effective in its entirety. 

Yes, a French court has blocked theirs. 

No, Australia has not got it right when they led the world off on the idea. 

But socially and morally, big tech is increasingly seen as a pariah and a bottom-line fiend that does whatever is necessary to stoke their engine of commerce. 

So the sense of it is we want to be seen to at least give this a good crack. At least be seen to be on the right side of the increasingly alarming stats around kids and harm and online life. 

And yet Labour, who should not have been needed, got there in the end and said, 'we've read all 79 answers (yea right) and we will back it to the first committee'. 

And then it turns out that didn’t matter because the Government doesn’t have time anyway. 

What a gargantuan waste of energy. 

No, it's not dead. Yes, it will still be an issue next year. And yes, in some way, shape or form we will probably get it across the line. 

But this thing started as an MP's bill, not a party idea. After it spent several years being “thought about”, it finally got revealed to a group of politicians who didn’t want it and wouldn’t vote for it. 

And by the time it got the numbers to get underway, time was up! 

On an energy-in/energy-out sort of equation, it's right up there in the waste-of-time stakes. 

So if you got excited, and this week looked a bit historic, see you next year.