That mad rush was felt on Tuesday as politicians filed to caucus meetings before ministers headed to cabinet, then the Beehive theatrette (of 1pm Covid conference fame) where Luxon announced a $1.2m fund for flood resilience. Then, it was time to take business to the House, with the first order being a cross-party acknowledgement of the loss of life from the landslide in Mount Maunganui.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, Christopher Luxon gave his start of year address. In an election year, the prime minister\u2019s statement can provide a window into the big issues which will rule the general election campaign trail. And for the government, these were the National Party classic hits: economic recovery, education, getting tough on crime and housing and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After the prime minister\u2019s statement is delivered, the House spends 13 hours debating said statement. It\u2019s how parliament has operated for ages, so hypothetically, the opposition could\u2019ve spent their whole summer break writing their rebuttals. Labour leader Chris Hipkins obviously didn\u2019t, because the best line he could come up with was that House must have turned into a laundromat \u201csuch was the level of spin and dirty laundry in the corner\u201d.<\/p>\n
Onto Green Party leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick, whose Shakespearean-style ode to those who get jumpscares from Luxon and live in slug-infested homes only earned her grief from the government side. Swarbrick\u2019s speech had Act Party leader David Seymour, for once, trying to imagine how someone else feels. \u201cYou can imagine the disappointment of Chris Hipkins back in his office thinking, \u2018Oh man, I\u2019m trying to climb Mt Everest, and [Swarbrick] is my Tenzing,\u2019\u201d Seymour told the House.<\/p>\n
When it came to Winston Peters\u2019, he was less sharp speaking on his own than he was spraying digs at Swarbrick from across the aisle. In a progressively more grumbly, mumbly old man voice, Peters lamented the \u201camateur-hour people\u201d in the Labour Party, the \u201ctradies-on-push-bikes\u201d in the Greens and the \u201cshow ponies in the M\u0101ori Party\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHear, hear!\u201d cried Shane Jones, caught in a daze of smitten ecstasy. \u201cHear, hear, hear, hear!\u201d<\/p>\n
By Wednesday, only one word was on the parliament hivemind: Crusher. Defence minister Judith Collins \u2013 who had evaded journalists on Tuesday \u2013 made a midday announcement that she was resigning. The out-going minister for everything leaves about 100 empty portfolios in her wake \u2013 a nice chance for someone like, say, National MP Chris Penk, to be promoted from minister outside to minister inside cabinet.<\/p>\n
During Wednesday\u2019s question time, Seymour proved no matter the quality of education you receive, anyone can make mistakes. Responding to a patsy by Act MP Laura McClure on the success of his charter schools, Seymour read aloud a letter from a parent whose son, thanks to his Auckland-based charter school, was bursting with newfound knowledge \u2013 namely, about Mozart and King Charles V.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cPoint of order, Mr Speaker,\u201d Hipkins cried, lifting himself from his throne. \u201cThe member may have misspoken, but given that he\u2019s speaking to our head of state, I think maybe he may wish to correct himself.\u201d The court jester forgot that his big boss\u2019s name is King Charles III, not V!<\/p>\n
It was an easy gotcha, but the speaker was feeling generous. \u201c[Seymour] also mentioned Mozart, of course, so perhaps there was a European King Charles \u2013 which there has been \u2013 which the member himself is not aware of,\u201d Brownlee said. Unfortunately, the speaker is right \u2013 Charles V was a Holy Roman Emperor.<\/p>\n
Before the dinner break, the House farewelled one of the fold. Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe, former electorate MP for Te Tai Hau\u0101uru, delivered his valedictory ahead of leaving parliament after Waitangi Day. Rurawhe recalled his journey as assistant speaker of the House, wrangling points of order from Jami-Lee Ross and Ian Lees-Galloway, and the shift in vying for the title of minister to taking on the role of speaker in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pinch myself almost every day and, you know, wonder how this guy from R\u0101tana P\u0101 gets to be the speaker of this House,\u201d Rurawhe said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When question time came around on Thursday, there was one star of the show: Seymour. Standing in as acting prime minister, associate finance minister and associated education minister, it was his interjections during Greens MP Tamatha Paul\u2019s question to social housing minister Tama Potaka which created the most tension in the House.<\/p>\n
In quoting the MP for Epsom\u2019s concerns that housing intensification can\u2019t come at the expense of \u201clooking into everyone\u2019s backyards and their swing sets and their pools\u201d, Seymour challenged Paul to set the facts straight. What he really said was that Aucklanders would be keen on a bit of intensification, but they have their hang ups, \u201csuch as not having people looking in their swing sets or backyards\u201d. It was the world\u2019s hardest round of spot the difference.<\/p>\n
So, there were some struggles as Paul was asked to rephrase her question. She leaned on the question of \u201cwhat\u2019s more embarrassing: having cabinet overrule his recommendations \u2026 or the prime minister making him weaken Auckland\u2019s housing targets altogether?\u201d This only gave the government more ammunition. \u201cI am not a judicial officer on embarrassment,\u201d Potaka told her.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWould the minister consider it more embarrassing to mindlessly read questions off a script or not be able to mindlessly read the questions off a script?\u201d Seymour asked, having just read a script sent to him by education minister Erica Stanford a few questions earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot as embarrassing as King Charles the fifth,\u201d Paul retorted.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, a final reading of Ng\u0101ti Hau\u0101 Claims Settlement Bill took place, with iwi members lining the seats of the public gallery, alongside framed photos of their t\u016bpuna. The settlement \u2013 nearly a decade in the making \u2013 will see $20.4m in financial redress, $6m for cultural revitalisation, the pardoning of two t\u016bpuna and the return of 64 culturally significant sites.<\/p>\n
A speech by Greens MP Steve Abel traversed the \u201cwicked acts of colonisation\u201d (this made Goldsmith laugh), which led to the settlement. He focussed on \u201cthe character of colonisation that Hau\u0101 were subjected to\u201d \u2013 Edward Gibbon Wakefield of the New Zealand Company, a \u201cself-interested capitalist exploiter\u201d. \u201cFrankly, he\u2019s a scumbag,\u201d Abel told the House.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, MP for Te Tai Hau\u0101uru (where Ng\u0101ti Hau\u0101 is based), challenged Treaty settlement minister Paul Goldsmith\u2019s description of the \u201cmisdeeds\u201d made by the Crown against Ng\u0101ti Hau\u0101. \u201cCheating in a test is a misdeed and stealing is a misdeed,\u201d Ngarewa-Packer said. \u201cBut having a deliberate campaign that targeted the tangata whenua here in Aotearoa is anything but a misdeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The waiata which echoed through the House was dampened with a few tears. It\u2019s always a treat when parliament ends the week by passing a Treaty settlement \u2013 a reminder that despite all the bullshit, some progress\u00a0 happens in this place, every now and then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a week for parliament to say hello, and others to say goodbye. It was a summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[111794,11508,23067,54505,266,42,43,135,119537,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-259348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-chloe-swarbrick","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-david-seymour","tag-echo-chamber","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-question-time","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}