Last week, the Greens cast two proxy votes for Kapa-Kingi and Ferris against the bill. Kapa-Kingi was contacted for comment.
On Tuesday, before question time, Kapa-Kingi sought leave to have her vote switched to one cast in favour of the bill.
“I seek leave to correct a vote which was mistakenly given on my behalf on the Medicines Amendment Bill third reading,” Kapa-Kingi said.
“My vote on the Medicines Amendment Bill third reading was given as one against. It should have been one in favour.”
Ferris got to his feet and sought leave to correct his own vote.
Both MPs were successful and the Hansard on the Medicines Bill, now an act, shows it passed with the support of the whole House.
The Green Party’s musterer (whip) Ricardo Menéndez March disputed Kapa-Kingi’s characterisation of the vote as a “mistake”.
He said the Greens asked the MPs how they wanted their proxy votes cast and then cast the votes in accordance with their wishes.
“We cast the votes per the information we received from the two independent MPs, which was that they were voting against it.
“The facts are that we voted according to the information that was given to us. MPs are more than welcome to correct their votes but it is simply not factually correct to say we mistakenly cast it,” he said.
NZ First MP Winston Peters raised a point of order about the correction in the House.
Menéndez March said casting proxy votes for independent MPs had “happened for decades” and he did not think Peters or other MPs should be making an issue of it.