Ryan Bridge: My take on the Māori Party House debate

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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4d ago 2:31

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Well that was as chaotic as you'd expect.

I caught the first half of Parliament's debate on the haka-gate: Winston Peters went full attack dog, Willie Jackson fought back, Waititi brought a noose into the chamber, and Adrian Rurawhe, former Speaker and Labour MP, had the most sensible and respectable take of the debate.

I've had the pleasure of interviewing him a few times. He's a humble, quiet and observant sort of guy.

He's quick to a smile and enjoys a good argument.

Not that you could hear it in the House yesterday. Loads of interjecting. Lots of noise.

Adrian gets respect because he shushed his own Labour colleagues while he was up on his feet.

He made two decent points.

1. The Privileges Committee is meant to be bipartisan. The fact this punishment was not, is a bad thing. Why? Because now it's open season, governments —of any persuasion— can weaponize its punishments against their political opponents. This is not a good thing. As he points out, this was the government punishing MPs, not the Parliament. Which it ought to be.

Herein lies the problem with Parliament these days - there is no agreed standard of behaviours that's universal to all MPs. Getting physically up in somebody's grill is considered okay by some. The House is meant to be about what comes out of your mouth, not how close another MP is to it.

2. Rurawhe scolded the Māori Party for not apologising for their bad behaviour. He spoke of his cousin Dame Tariana Turia. She never skipped a vote, worked hard for her people and spoke on every bill before the House.

The question really is whether Te Pati Māori actually wants to be in Parliament or whether it wants a separate one. If it wants the latter, which its website says it does, and doesn't turn up half the time or gets suspended for breaking rules, you've got to ask yourself why they're there in the first place.

All in all, aside from Adrian's wise words, there's a few hours wasted the House won't get back.

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