Parliament's Speaker Gerry Brownlee Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Parliament's Speaker had to be called in to make a ruling during urgency, after the opposition objected to the debate over benefit increases being shut down.
Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori all objected when chairperson Maureen Pugh agreed to move on to the next stage after only taking questions from a few MPs, and none from Te Pāti Māori.
She said this was after she warned the opposition MPs about asking repetitive questions. Speaker Gerry Brownlee decided to review the record, but accept Pugh's ruling for now.
The government's legislation to curb benefit increases - by linking them to the Consumer Price Index rather than average wage growth - was introduced about 10am, and passed its first and second readings before midday.
The next stage is the Committee of the whole House, where the Speaker - Parliament's referee - leaves, and the minister responsible for the bill must answer questions about it from other MPs, who can also propose amendments which are then also voted on.
Labour's Carmel Sepuloni had asked questions about how wage growth and Consumer Price Index (CPI) was being calculated, and whether it would - as accompanying advice from the Ministry of Social Development suggested - lead to an increase in child poverty.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March also asked - among other things - about the effects on child poverty.
Social Development Minister Louise Upston said the government was absolutely committed to reducing child poverty, and "when you look at individual advice on a piece of legislation, it is just that; it doesn't take into account the broader commitments that we have already made".
After further questions, Pugh allowed Sepuloni to speak again but with a warning: "Can I just say I'm looking for new material in this debate?"
"The reason I have to keep asking this question is because it has not been answered," Sepuloni said, "the minister can't just answer the question in a way where she's not actually responding to what I'm asking."
She again asked if there were any legal ramifications on the government passing a bill which advice showed would lead to increases in child poverty, given the government had signed on to a law promising to reduce it.
With the house sitting under urgency, the Bill will not be subject to select committee processes..
"I need to get appropriate responses to the questions that I'm asking, otherwise I'm going to have to keep asking them. And I think that they are fair and reasonable questions. This is our only opportunity to interrogate this bill," she said.
National's MP for Northland Grant McCallum then called for the debate to move on to the next stage, which the government voted through.
March challenged Pugh on this, but she said she had "kept a very close watch prior to coming in and while I've been here, on the topics that have been addressed. Repeating the questions and expecting a different answer is not something".
March said there were other questions that had not been answered, and called for the Speaker to be recalled into the House. Labour's Ginny Andersen said she - as associate spokesperson - had not had a chance to speak on the bill. Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer noted they had not had a chance to speak on the bill at all.
Brownlee was brought into the House and - after the situation was explained from the perspective of each party - said Standing Orders were clear the chairperson, Pugh, had the final say on relevance, repetition and new material.
Labour's Kieran McAnulty said they accepted that, but wanted Brownlee to reflect on when certain questions were answered and other questions were not - as well as examining whether different opposition parties should be apportioned a more fair speaking time.
Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer also asked that him consider the standing order which demands that "the Speaker must be satisfied that, having regard to the party [and] parties ... does not discriminate against or oppress a minority party or minority parties. In this case, we didn't get a word said, and I think that that's really unfair."
Brownlee said he would look at the record and see how the speeches were distributed before the closure motion, "but, for now, the ruling stands and the committee is resumed".
'An abuse of Parliamentary process'
Speaking to media later, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said recalling the Speaker was a "legitimate thing to happen when those kind of debate take place".
"I think when urgency's used you have to allow for the fact that there's going to be a bit more debate, there's going to be a bit more time to get it through the house," he said.
Departing Green co-leader James Shaw was outraged.
"It's ridiculous, I mean they've basically been in urgency since the end of last year and are ramming through legislation (with) very, very significant consequences for people and communities around the country.
"The fact that they're doing it under urgency when there's no actual good reason to do so other than to ensure there is no debate is outrageous.
"They're absolutely trying to shut it down and it's a total abuse of Parliamentary process."
Ngarewa-Packer said it was important to have transparency and the chairperson had closed off debate too quickly.
"I think there's an absolute anxiety from this government to rush things through and they're things that affect the more vulnerable people in our community, I think they should be more transparent."
Upston said the matter of question allocations was not for her to answer.
"I was happy to answer questions, I did make the point that I was happy to answer questions that were in scope and that I didn't want to repeat answers to questions I'd already been asked."
She said she disagreed that she had not provided satisfactory answers to the questions.
"The scope of the bill is actually really really narrow, and that's what I wanted to focus on - answering questions specifically related to the bill.
"We made the commitment in the election period that we would be consistently changing the annual increase to benefits to index it to CPI."
