Manawatū Gorge Replacement Opens Toll-Free
We had to campaign hard against a National Government that wanted to slap a toll on locals who had already waited a long time for this road to open,' says Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere.
Thanks to a successful community-led campaign backed by Labour, Lower North Island locals are today celebrating the toll-free opening of Te Ahu a Turanga – Manawatū Tararua Highway.
Local Labour MPs Tangi Utikere and Kieran McAnulty wore their Toll-Free Tararua t-shirts to celebrate the opening of the new road without the National Government's proposed toll.
'It is such a relief for locals to have the Manawatū Tararua Highway open today, after years of work went in to replace the old Manawatū Gorge,' Labour transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere said.
'We had to campaign hard against a National Government that wanted to slap a toll on locals who had already waited a long time for this road to open.
'That was greedy and uncalled for, given the road had already been funded by Labour.
'It took a huge effort by locals, and strong support from people in surrounding areas who stood against National's toll.
'It's a beautiful new road, and I look forward to using it regularly to drive between the mighty electorates of Palmerston North and Wairarapa,' Tangi Utikere said.
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The Spinoff
3 hours ago
- The Spinoff
‘How do I not get rage-baited?' Meet the under-25s vying for council seats
They're young, full of ambition and just want to make sure their mates stop leaving the country. The competitive world of local politics, where greying heads and people named John dominate, is not a domain younger New Zealanders have traditionally gravitated towards. While this is changing – the number of under-40s voted in at the last last local elections in 2022 had doubled since 2016 – the median age was still 55, and only around 6% of members were aged 18-30. Looking to further increase that percentage when the country heads to the polls in October, these young candidates are hoping another youthquake could be possible in local government. Born on a leap day in the year 2000, 25-year-old Wellingtonian Sam O'Brien may have only had six real birthdays, but he reckons he's got enough life experience to represent the Motukairangi/Eastern Ward on Wellington City Council. Running on the Labour ticket, O'Brien is the second-youngest candidate in his race after the Act Local-backed 21-year-old Luke Kuggeleijn. Though their political stances are poles apart, they're both driven by the same motivation: to prove the youth voice can speak for all New Zealanders. It's a rainy day in Kuggeleijn's home suburb of Lyall Bay – Motukairangi/Eastern Ward stretches eastwards from Roseneath, Kilbirnie, Hataitai and Lyall Bay to cover the Miramar Peninsula that juts out into the mouth of Wellington Harbour – when we meet for a coffee at Maranui Cafe, just a stone's throw from the Surf Life Saving Club where he works. A postgraduate medical technology student and athlete, Kuggeleijn told The Spinoff he decided to throw his hat in the ring after seeing the party he voted for at the last election move into the world of local government – he figured the support that Act could offer would make it easier for a first-time candidate at his age to 'have the confidence to stand'. Also, it's pretty handy to have some mentors around who can answer the hard questions, like 'how do I not get rage-baited?' Running in a Green/Labour stronghold city, Kuggeleijn reckons his chances of winning one of the three ward councillor spots are slim (and the Eastern Ward race in particular is pretty stacked, with mayoral candidates Alex Baker, Rob Goulden and Karl Tiefenbacher also running), but he says it's still worth it if it encourages other young people to get into local politics. 'Usually, [young people] only see older people on council, and they think it's shit – you know, what's the point [of caring?],' Kuggeleijn says. 'We have a 45% voter turnout [in Wellington], and they're mostly older property owners and people who are already interested in politics.' Kuggeleijn says he feels 'fairly aligned' with Act's principles and 'commonsense mindset' on council spending, a position also informed by the experiences of his parents, two local business owners dealing with the rising cost of rates. As a councillor, Kuggeleijn says he'd be focused on 'ending wasteful spending and focusing on core services'. There are times when Kuggeleijn feels slightly out of step with his more progressive peers, but he's a firm believer that 'in a democracy, you've got to give people a choice, even if it's a minority view'. 'I think the best course of action you should take if you're elected is that [you see yourself] as a public servant, so you have to serve. People should make decisions that are not based on ideology or political favour – you're supposed to make decisions based on what the people want,' Kuggeleijn says. In Hataitai, Sam O'Brien's vision for the Eastern Ward looks vastly different. Over a coffee and toastie from Coolsville Cafe, just up the road from his flat, the regional council environment policy adviser (who's been endorsed by outgoing Eastern Ward councillor Teri O'Neill, herself elected to council at age 21), reckons he's been to far too many leaving parties for his mates who are heading overseas for better opportunities. Encouraging development and demand in the Eastern Ward will be key to curbing the 'general down-buzz' permeating the air in the capital, he says, and to turn off the tap on the brain drain. Alexandra born-and-raised O'Brien is running for council in the city he moved to post-university because he believes the council could be more proactive at listening to the concerns of younger Wellingtonians. The Eastern Ward in particular has seen very little growth in terms of population, O'Brien says, and as a councillor he would push to enable housing intensification and greater density. Ignoring these issues will 'affect young people more than anyone else' in the long run, he says. Having affected mobility due to hip and knee replacements as a child, O'Brien is also pushing for a more accessible capital by way of supporting more pedestrian-friendly urban spaces and improving the public transport system in the city. And should he make it onto the council table, O'Brien hopes older Wellingtonians will be able to see themselves and their interests reflected in his work. 'What benefits young people benefits everyone, and I don't want to come across a candidate that only cares about young people,' he says. 'A lot of older voters that are on fixed incomes are really struggling, and you can see the similarities between them and students.' 'I'll sacrifice myself, I guess' Further north in Auckland, 21-year-old Caitlin Wilson is running for the Waitematā Local Board with City Vision, the Labour-Greens-independent local government coalition in the supercity. She's also seen too many of her mates headed to Australia for work opportunities, and as a former co-convenor for the Young Greens, Wilson had tried last year to put together a campaign to 'push the vote out for our younger audiences', but struggled to find any young candidates keen to stand in 2025 – until she realised she should just do it, deciding, 'I'll sacrifice myself, I guess.' 'There's no pathway, which is why a lot of young people say, 'I don't know where to start',' Wilson says. 'You feel like you have to fit a certain mould, talk a certain way, look a certain way … But I definitely think I'm learning that people should respect me for who I am, regardless of how I dress and speak.' Wilson says local government isn't designed to engage young people – too few councillors are showing up in youth-focused spaces, and holding local board meetings at the 'retiree time' of 1pm can be a barrier to accessibility. 'Young people, and myself included, have in the past thought, 'they don't care about us, they don't care about our opinions, so why should we be engaged?'' Wilson says. Her own interest in politics happened by accident – she was 15, there was a global pandemic going on, and Green MP (now co-leader) Chlöe Swarbrick was on Facebook Live talking about the cannabis referendum. It was the first time Wilson had seen a politician 'speaking in a language I could understand'. She hopes that standing for council and replicating some of Swarbrick's 2020 campaigning by hitting the universities and letterboxes can also help the youth vote grow. 'My whole thing has just always been to bring people into politics, people who've never felt welcomed or that they needed a certain level of knowledge to enter this space,' Wilson says. 'It's not just young people – I feel I can represent disengaged communities in general, families and people who don't have the time and luxury to be in the know with local government.' Young enough to know when to quit Rohan O'Neill-Stevens was only 19 when they were first elected to Nelson City Council in 2019, and had just turned 22 when they became the city's deputy mayor, after putting their name forward for the top job. Now 25 and having spent a quarter of their life in local government, O'Neill-Stevens reckons it's the right time to give someone else a chance to bring their ideas to the council table. 'I promised myself when I was first elected that I'd ask myself every single day, 'Is this where I'm most effective and most able to drive change?'' O'Neill-Stevens tells The Spinoff. 'I can step away with confidence that I'm making space for someone else to have those opportunities to shape the future, and that I'll be able to find new ways to do the same.' Their experience in council has shown them that younger elected members tend to face more scrutiny than their older counterparts – it wasn't uncommon to field 'way more technical questions' to prove that they were on par with older councillors. 'There was definitely that period of being sized up,' O'Neill-Stevens says. 'It's so hard to know what my experience would have been like if I wasn't young. But also, I'm a male-presenting white person, so those layers of perception are different in terms of what it takes to earn respect, and to have your voice be treated as one of authority.' To the next generation of young councillors, O'Neill-Stevens says the 'service to the kaupapa' has to be the driving force behind a campaign, and to 'approach every conversation with the expectation that you'll learn something'. Being able to create meaningful dialogue with community members, even those who might never vote for you, is still 'an innate source of information' for what's going on in your area. That attitude to conversation even works with fellow candidates. 'So many people will tell you exactly what their debates are before you go in, even if they are completely opposed to you,' O'Neill-Stevens says. 'Use that to your advantage, get them talking. Let them spill their secrets.'
Otago Daily Times
21 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Spine and Punishment: A review of Swarbrick v Brownlee
Analysis by Phil Smith of RNZ Parliament's Speaker, Gerry Brownlee, had a rough week. He made a series of novel, escalating rulings, with later rulings to justify the earlier ones, all after, arguably, digging himself into a procedural hole. Any discussion of it should probably start at the beginning. First though, it is plainly not easy being Parliament's Speaker. Speakers are often a lightning rod for opprobrium and discontent - and that is when they're doing well. The role walks a tightrope, caught between two sides, trying to avoid one's own natural bias; attempting to maintain order in a chaotic House that has more attention-seeking rascals than haunt a teacher's worst nightmares. The inciting debate On Tuesday, the Speaker allowed an urgent debate on the issue of New Zealand recognising Palestinian statehood. The situation in Gaza is desperate and horrific, so understandably the debate was impassioned. It probably didn't help that National Party MPs declined to contribute any speeches to the debate. Very strong language was frequent. Labour's Peeni Henare asked "how many more people will die because of the government dragging its heels?" and accused the government of "walking blissfully into the sunset of ignorance". ACT's Simon Court accused MPs of bandying around "Hamas propaganda", described Chlöe Swarbrick's description of the situation in Gaza as "hallucinating outrage", and intimated that the UN agency UNRWA was "enabling terrorism". Labour's Vanushi Walters accused the government of waiting "until the very last possible moment to make the morally correct decision". Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said "this is ethnic cleansing. This is genocide and apartheid, and I have never been more ashamed to be in the House than I am today." What irked the Speaker, though, was some rhetoric from Green Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick who said, "I will reiterate my call for the government to pick up our Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill and to sanction Israel for its war crimes. If we find six of 68 government MPs with a spine, we can stand on the right side of history". Gerry Brownlee interjected, saying: "that is completely unacceptable to make that statement. Withdraw it and apologise". Swarbrick declined to do so, and the Speaker ruled "then leave the House for the rest of the week". Hansard, which describes Parliament with Georgian nicety, records that "Chlöe Swarbrick withdrew from the Chamber." 'Spineless' There were a few different elements to that ruling, and its immediate aftermath. Let's take them in order. A wag might point out that, on paper, the ruling from the Speaker was that hoping to find six governing-party MPs with a spine was "unacceptable". Of course it was the implication rather than the literal phrase that he found problematic. The Speaker later remembered the offending phrase as that governing MPs were "spineless", which is easier to say - so let's go with that. There are many examples of MPs using similar language in Parliament to describe an MP's opponents: "get a spine", "have the guts", "spineless", "gutless", etcetera. They have been made on both sides of the House, including a few times this Parliament. Sometimes MPs are told off, sometimes no one notices. One previous Speaker, when an MP complained about the use of "spineless", ruled that the term was not disallowed at all. Upon request, the Parliamentary Library collated 17 pages of recent examples, and it wasn't exhaustive. Other claims are much more assured of getting an MP in trouble. Particularly implying dishonesty, lying, or corruption. I found no reference to insults relating to bravery in the collected Speakers' Rulings that, akin to common law, guides interpretation of Parliament's rules. Swarbrick was definitely taking a swipe, but she was also calling on governing-party MPs to break ranks and vote for a Green bill. It's an old and ineffectual political tactic - insulting your opponent into joining you. On the other hand, doing what Swarbrick suggested would take an unusually strong spine. Disobeying your own party to vote with the opposition is very rare. Tariana Turia and Marilyn Waring had spines of steel. Ejection, overreach and justification Gerry Brownlee's typical approach is to gently reprove MPs, telling them not to repeat poor behaviour - sometimes repeatedly, and with repeated final warnings. Occasionally an MP is asked to "withdraw and apologise" which is genteel parliamentary language for taking back a remark. Refusing to withdraw a remark is considered highly disorderly, whatever was said. When that happens MPs are usually asked to leave the House. But the Speaker overreacted. Speakers are only empowered to eject an MP for a single day. Gerry Brownlee jumping straight into a week's absence brought to mind the speech that former Speaker Adrian Rurawhe gave in June, when arguing against the Privileges Committee's majority recommendation to impose unprecedented punishments on three Te Pāti Māori MPs. "The Privileges Committee of the future will have a new precedent, without a doubt-a new range of penalties against members who err in the future. You can guarantee that. You can also guarantee that governments of the day, in the future, will feel very free to use those penalties to punish their opponents." A little while after Swarbrick had departed the Green's musterer Ricardo Menéndez March pointed out the punishment itself was against the rules. The Speaker returned to the Chamber, not to retract, but to justify his mistake with a brand new rule (emphasis added). "The comment that I made was that it could be for the rest of the week. That was because, while it is true the member can only be removed from the House for the sitting day, the requirement for an apology does not lapse. And so if the member comes back in tomorrow and, at the start of proceedings after the prayer, takes a Point of Order and withdraws and apologises for the offensive remark, then that will be fine. If she doesn't, then she'll be leaving the House again. "I'm not going to sit in this Chair and tolerate a member standing on her feet or his feet or their feet and saying that other members in the House are spineless. That is completely unacceptable. I made it very clear at the start of the special debate that I expected it to be conducted in a manner that was respectful of the various views that are held across the House. So I've come back in here to make it absolutely clear that there is still an expectation that there will be a withdrawal and apology; and until there is one, then the status quo will continue." Arguably, that explanation dug the procedural hole deeper. Brownlee was now demanding an apology before Swarbrick would be allowed to return. That could turn a day-long suspension into a permanent one if the MP in question decided it was an issue on which they wouldn't back down. Searching back more than 22 years and at least 585 MPs ejected from the chamber, Parliament's Library couldn't find any example of a Speaker demanding an apology before an MP could return. There's a reason for that - Brownlee's demand directly contradicts a current Speaker's Ruling (ruling 21/1, from Speaker Hunt in 2001), which concludes "where a member refused to apologise and was ordered to leave the Chamber by the Speaker, the matter is at an end at that point". Brownlee's insisting on an apology before an MP can return is both new and, in this case, retrospective and retroactive. Parliament, as an institution generally frowns on retrospective law. Gerry Brownlee has, in the past, described laws that may have effect prior to their passing as "dopey" and "the worst kind of legislation we could possibly have". Ejection redux: Naming On Wednesday, the House began with the Speaker inviting Swarbrick again to "withdraw and apologise for an offensive comment made in the House yesterday". She declined again. Therefore, he again required her to leave the chamber. At this point Chris Hipkins tried to raise a Point of Order, but the Speaker declined to hear it. A very brief standoff ensued when Swarbrick stayed put, which only escalated things further. The Speaker asked "Is the member refusing to leave the House?" No response was recorded in the video or Hansard. Brownlee continued, "I therefore name Chlöe Swarbrick". Naming is more serious than just being kicked out. It includes a loss of both a day's wages and the ability to vote or participate in committees or the House. Only the House can name a member, so a vote was required. The vote was contested and a party vote showed the governing parties in favour and opposition parties against. Swarbrick departed to a call of "Free Palestine" and some applause. Brownlee is a former classroom teacher, and - nodding back to the metaphor we began with - it's not a great sign when a teacher ejects a student from class and the departing student is applauded on their way. Once Swarbrick had departed Chris Hipkins rose again with a Point of Order. Parliament's rules (The Standing Orders) include a specific wording for the vote to name a member. Brownlee had evidently been flustered and bumbled it. "So I wonder," asked Hipkins, "whether you could indicate to us what the motion that the House just voted on actually was, because if it was the one that you spoke, it doesn't have the effect that you think it does". This brings to mind Inigo Montoya in the Princess Bride telling Vizzini "I do not think it means what you think it means". Inconceivable! Brownlee had a second crack at it, and there was another vote, with the same result. Reflections on the Speaker Chris Hipkins rose again with a second Point of Order, which began a broader discussion about the correctness and appropriateness of the Speaker's ruling. This itself was unusual. When an issue has been raised in the House it is not unusual for there to be a few contesting Points of Order before the Speaker makes a ruling. But after a Speaker makes a ruling such challenges are only allowed formally, by a later motion with notice (Speakers' Ruling 25/1). By contrast, on Wednesday there was an extended debate on the appropriateness and the correctness of the Speaker's fractions and rulings. That debate only drew out more contestable rulings. The core of Hipkins' Point of Order was whether the Speaker, in demanding an apology the following day, was acting in contravention of the rules. "I've been in the House quite a long time and there have been plenty of instances where members have been ejected from the Chamber for the rest of the day for doing exactly what Chlöe Swarbrick did. There is not a single instance where a member has been asked to withdraw and apologise the following sitting day, and then named for not doing that. "There has only been one instance that I can recall where a member was subsequently asked to withdraw a comment, and that was the Rt Hon John Key when he said that members of the Opposition supported rapists and murderers. At the time, he received a standing ovation from the National Party. That was a very controversial matter, and it was at least a week later that the Speaker asked him to withdraw and apologise in order to restore order in the House, which had been lost. "I think the naming of a member for something they had done the day before is not something that has ever happened in the House before. I wonder whether you can reflect on what precedent or Standing Order you're relying on in asking Chlöe Swarbrick to apologise for something [done] the day before, because I did check the Speakers' Rulings, and Jonathan Hunt back in 2001 specifically ruled that 'where a member refused to apologise and was ordered to leave the Chamber by the Speaker, the matter is at an end at that point' [Speakers Ruling 21/1]. So that has been the established practice of the House since 2001, and I wonder if you could indicate why that has changed." Speakers' Rulings referenced in this article are quoted in full at the bottom. Brownlee responded "because the Standing Orders Committee met in July of 2017 and brought down a new Speaker's ruling, Speaker's Ruling 23/1. I refer the member to that." A new Speaker's Ruling (23/1) was added in 2017, but it has two problems. Firstly, it plainly did not supersede the 21/1 ruling (that being sent out is the end of the matter), because 21/1 is still extant in the Speaker's Rulings. Kieran McAnulty also pointed out the contradiction. Brownlee disagreed. Furthermore, 23/1 doesn't seem at all relevant. It reflects the John Key situation that Hipkins referred to. It allows a Speaker to deal with a situation retrospectively but assumes it hasn't already been dealt with. And it has conditions. It is to be used only in serious cases, and only where not doing so would have a continued impact on the House's ability to conduct its business. In the John Key situation the Opposition were so offended at the Speaker's refusal to demand a retraction that they walked out en masse. The Speaker asked Key to apologise later to restore order. The Swarbrick situation had been dealt with at the time. Unlike Key, Swarbrick had been ejected from the Chamber. Hipkins and Menéndez March both argued against this unusual ruling. Menéndez March immediately and Hipkins later. Hipkins argued that "The [23/1] ruling ... specifically states that the threshold should be very, very high for that type of action. There was no disorder in the House once Chlöe Swarbrick had left yesterday, nor was there any today. The very high threshold that was envisaged by the Standing Orders Committee at the time certainly does not appear to have been met in this instance." Menéndez March, referring to the condition that acting retrospectively was only allowable if not doing so would affect the House's ability to function, asked: "Is it your view that this meets that threshold?" The Speaker's answer to Menéndez March took the debate somewhere new. Unprecedented? The Speaker did not attempt to argue the facts or the rules, he went with a claim that Swarbrick's behaviour was ... newly offensive. "If that's how the member wants to take it, but if you think about the comment that was made, 68 members of this House were accused of being spineless. There has never been a time when personal insults like that delivered inside a speech were accepted by this House, and I'm not about to start accepting it." Setting standards in the Debating Chamber is the Speaker's prerogative, but it was far from the first time that such a comment had been made. Remember the 17 pages of occasions referenced by the library? Gerry Brownlee has himself questioned the courage of his opponents en masse, but couched in slightly politer terms. First on his feet to respond was an unexpected ally for the Opposition - Winston Peters (who typically has no time for the Greens). "Mr Speaker, I've been in this House when a Prime Minister accused the Opposition of [needing to] '[get] some guts' - it was a serious accusation; nothing happened - and then, worse, I've heard the "c" word being accepted as language that can be used in this House. My personal view is that I don't agree with a thing that Chlöe Swarbrick said at all, but this is a robust House where people have a right to express their views as passionately as they may, within certain rules. But I do not think that eviction was warranted. That's my position." As it happens, the "c" word, as Peters referred to it, was used again later in this debate without remark. Winston Peters' confidence may come from the fact that he himself has called governments and government MPs spineless, in both a General Debate and in Question Time - without punishment. On the other hand, confusingly, his party had also just voted that Swarbrick be "named". As a result of that contradiction, Menéndez March inquired whether the vote to name Swarbrick could be taken again. The Speaker did not allow this. Brownlee did not respond to Peters' opinion, other than to introduce some context for the new interpretation of Parliament's rules. The Speaker's context, and a new decency? "There [are] considerable efforts being made at the moment," said Brownlee, "across the Parliamentary Service to deal with what might be described as cyberbullying, and, essentially, what it comes down to is a question of: 'what standard does the House want to set for itself?' I've decided that there are two things that can be looked at. One is that if there are interjections across the House and they are reactionary ... then that is not as egregious as someone taking their speaking time to include a gratuitous insult inside a speech. That is, in my opinion, from this point on-while I'm in the Chair-unacceptable. I take the point the member makes about the House being a robust place-it most certainly is. But if members are going to be disrespectful of one another in such a demonstrable way, then how on earth can we be upset about members of the public taking a similar approach to dealing with MPs?" Within the above quote is another new edict from the Speaker (emphasis added). The Speaker also noted on Wednesday that, in the wake of Tuesday's Palestine Debate and his ejection of Swarbrick, he had raised the issue in the cross-party Business Committee. "There's a point where things change, and I've reached the conclusion that we had so many threats and other stuff being directed at members of Parliament that if we don't change behaviour in here, nothing will change outside. So that is part of my rationale as well, and I made that very clear to the Business Committee yesterday." The Speaker participated in a recent forum with other MPs on the subject of cyberbullying. We reported on it at the time. Apparently, he took to heart the impact of hateful communication on some (particularly female) MPs. It is well-intentioned to posit that if MPs were polite about each other's policies and beliefs, then trolls and lunatics would no longer send them hate mail and death-threats. It seems a little hopeful, but modelling respectful behaviour is a nice start. However, opting to begin a campaign to make female MPs feel safe by coming down like a tonne of bricks on a female MP, (probably one of the female MPs most commonly attacked online), may have missed the mark. Regardless, the Speaker's role includes maintaining "order and decorum in the House", so setting standards (within the rules), is fair enough. But again, while the intent is good, it is a post-hoc ruling, and given after the punishment. If that ruling and warning had been made before he sanctioned Swarbrick it may have made a lot more sense to everyone. The debate with the Speaker on this matter continued for quite a while. We can't include it all. But two more moments are worthy of note. First, Kieran McAnulty wondered how a punishment could be escalated when the original punishment was itself outside the rules. Brownlee's response included more new rules. "...The fact that someone is asked to leave the House for a comment that has caused offence, and they do so for that day, does not mean that the offence has gone away. That can be a new thing written into the Speakers' rulings, if that's what it takes ... and there is a huge difference between the sort of commentary that you get by way of interjection-which should be rare and has become far too frequent-and a comment that is inside a speech delivered deliberately to the House." Those are both new ideas, and again, they are retroactive. One more moment worthy of noting was when Labour maverick Willie Jackson offered his own experience. "With respect, I think that this is outrageous. I ask you, with respect, to reconsider this, given that you have kicked me out twice for calling another member a liar, and then I've been out of the House for less than 30 minutes and you gave a direction that I could come back into the House. We need some clarity on this. This is incredibly unfair that I can call another member a liar, rightfully get kicked out of the House, and asked to come back into the House within half an hour, with no apology required. ... I did not apologise and I would never apologise." Possibly at the core of all of this is a confluence of factors. The war in Gaza is a highly emotive issue, and, as Brownlee termed it, a "tragedy of humanity". It's surely an issue where every MP, regardless of their current relative power, probably feels powerless to genuinely effect useful change. That combination of impotence and tragedy is quite a tinderbox to toss provocations into. There were plenty of provocations. In retrospect it seems odd that, of all the statements made in Tuesday's Palestine Debate, the Speaker did not react to Simon Court accusing MPs of repeating "Hamas propaganda"; or Peeni Hemare claiming that people were dying "as a result of" the government's reluctance to act. He did though ask Court to withdraw his claim that Swarbrick was "hallucinating outrage". Instead it was a challenge to not be spineless that sparked the whole affair. As the Speaker admitted, it was a very personal reaction: "That, I think, in the context of that debate, was completely unacceptable, and - I've got to be quite straight up with you - I personally found it deeply offensive." Spare a thought for Parliament's Clerk's who will have the job of untangling all those new rulings and deciding which to include in the official guide to Speaker's Rulings, and which rules they may supersede. Speakers' Rulings referenced above Speakers Rulings are a collection of important decisions made by various past Speakers that are used to guide the current interpretation of the Parliament rules (The Standing Orders). They are akin to the Common Law of previous judicial decisions that can influence future interpretation of legislation in the courts. 21/1 Where a member has been asked to apologise and has left the Chamber rather than comply, the Speaker always insists that the member return to the Chamber and apologise. Members cannot avoid complying with the Speaker's direction by just leaving the Chamber. (But where a member refused to apologise and was ordered to leave the Chamber by the Speaker, the matter is at an end at that point). 2001, Vol. 596, p.13100. Hunt. 23/1 We consider, however, that the Speaker is able to deal retrospectively in the House with matters of order if the Speaker considers it important and in the House's interests to do so. The Speaker's primary task is to preside over the effective conduct of proceedings. Where an incident may have a continued impact on the House's ability to deal with its business, the Speaker can address the matter. Retrospective intervention by the Speaker should be infrequent and used only in serious cases. In such situations, the Speaker could ask the offending member to withdraw and apologise, or could take stronger action if necessary. Members should raise such issues privately with the Speaker, outside the House. This ensures that the prohibition on retrospective points of order remains undisturbed, and members can discuss their concerns with the Speaker away from the charged atmosphere of the Chamber. There is still, of course, a strong presumption that points of order will be raised immediately. Report of the Standing Orders Committee, July 2017 (I.18A), p. 14. 25/1 (1) The Speaker's ruling may be challenged only by a direct motion with notice; (2) such notice cannot be accepted immediately after the ruling has been given. It must be given at the appropriate time. (1) 1891, Vol. 72, p. 7. Steward. 1903, Vol. 125, p. 523. Guinness. 1931, Vol. 228, p. 725. Statham. 2017, Vol. 726, p. 733. Mallard. (2) 1960, Vol. 322, pp. 161-62. Macfarlane.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Ardern and Hipkins are afraid of being honest with us about their Covid decisions - Heather du Plessis-Allan
Former Labour ministers, including Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins, have refused to appear publicly at the Covid inquiry. Photo / Mark Mitchell THE FACTS If the four former Labour ministers thought they would preserve their reputations by refusing to appear publicly before the Covid inquiry, they have misjudged it. It is a refusal, by the way, not a declining. A request to appear before a Royal Commission of Inquiry is not like
