21-05-2025
Gone By Lunchtime: House of C****
Reflections on haka-triggered bans and column-propelled C-bombs, and a couple of thoughts about the budget.
A last-minute adjournment has kicked the debate around the punishments imposed upon Te Pāti Māori MPs down the road and past the budget, avoiding a possible burst of filibuster activity. All of that follows a controversial Privileges Committee decision to serve up suspensions that go well beyond anything seen before in an episode stemming from an extraordinary day in parliament six months ago.
The air in parliament was already thick after a newspaper column used the C-word to describe several senior MPs and their decision to change pay equity rules. Act MP Brooke Van Velden, who'd been on the defensive over the reforms, pushed through under urgency, found a new, powerful voice, and spoke without asterisks.
It all prompted such disarray in the debating chamber that Winston Peters, doyen of parliamentary decorum, denounced a 'House of Chaos' (an accidental allusion to the popular monthly techno night at Firecrackers nightclub in Ashburton).
All of that is on the slate for Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas in this latest episode of the Spinoff politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime. Plus: we exclusively read the full text of the Budget Policy Statement and Estimates of appropriations that are scheduled for publication tomorrow.
