{"id":603012,"date":"2026-09-17T07:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603012\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T07:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T07:56:12","slug":"te-pati-maori-co-leader-debbie-ngarewa-packer-ejected-from-parliament-for-using-c-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603012\/","title":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer ejected from Parliament for using c-word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori&#8217;s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has been ejected from Parliament after using the c-word.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Politicians have been debating the Move-On orders legislation under urgency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Ngarewa-Packer admitted she used the word which had been used three times in Parliament and was asked to leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Labour&#8217;s Willie Jackson also left the chamber after raising an objection then getting in a shouting match with other MPs, prompting Assistant Speaker Maureen Pugh to call for the Sergeant of Arms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori&#8217;s MP Oriini Kaipara had been making a speech and used the word &#8220;bullcrap&#8221;, which prompted Pugh to remind her to &#8220;keep the language Parliamentary&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Green MP Julie Anne Genter then began her speech but NZ First&#8217;s Casey Costello raised a point of order, saying Ngarewa-Packer had &#8220;used a word which I will not use that begins with C &#8230; the fact that it has been used once in this house does not make it common use, I find it particularly offensive and disrespectful to you Madam Speaker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">She said &#8220;it was directed at you, Madam Speaker&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Ngarewa-Packer then raised her own point, saying &#8220;three times the word c&#8212; has been used in this House, by the government &#8230; so either that word is offensive or bullcrap is&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">She was then asked to sit down and did so, saying, &#8220;Oh, hypocrites&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Pugh said: &#8220;And now I personally find that offensive and I&#8217;ll ask the member to leave the chamber.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;Are you now going to challenge my ruling? I&#8217;m not going to entertain a conversation on this, the member will leave the Chamber,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4JJQXFU_Image_10_jfif.jpeg\"  alt=\"Casey Costello.\" width=\"614\" height=\"384\" class=\"ml:max-h-[50rem] max-w-full aspect-[16\/10] object-cover\"  decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>NZ First MP Casey Costello.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-foreground-secondary flex-shrink-0 ml-4\">RNZ\/Marika Khabazi<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Jackson then stood to say he did not wish to challenge the ruling, prompting Pugh to say, &#8220;That&#8217;s good, it&#8217;s a good time to sit down then&#8221;, but he continued, saying the word had been used in front of the Parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Pugh told him to &#8220;sit down, sit down now&#8221;, but Jackson continued to argue the point, until Pugh ordered him to leave as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">When he did not, and Jackson continued shouting across Parliament, Pugh calmly directed the Sergeant at Arms to &#8220;assist Mr Jackson&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">She then sought clarification from Kaipara, who said she had not used the c-word, and Pugh apologised to her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Ngarewa-Packer&#8217;s original use of the word was not picked up by the microphones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Speaking to reporters afterwards, she explained she had been objecting to Kaipara being &#8220;growled&#8221; for saying &#8220;bullcrap&#8221; and she had been complaining in an aside &#8220;oh crike&#8217;s sake, they&#8217;ve used the word c&#8212; in the House before&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;Casey then stood up and narked on me &#8230; and told the speaker, who then stood up, and I think she thought &#8211; because Casey didn&#8217;t name me &#8211; I think she thought Oriini said it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">She said she had not been using the word to refer to Pugh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Jackson, speaking to reporters alongside Ngarewa-Packer, said Pugh had seemed to think she was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;No, of course not. No,&#8221; Ngarewa-Packer said. &#8220;I was talking to Oriini, and I said to Oriini &#8230; &#8216;whatever, they&#8217;ve used c&#8212; in the House before and so &#8230; if you want to look at the threshold, bullcrap&#8217;s not up there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Jackson said it was hypocrisy for Ngarewa-Packer to be ejected when ACT&#8217;s Brooke van Velden had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/politics\/560988\/brooke-van-velden-drops-c-word-in-parliament\" class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">previously said the word<\/a> and not been cautioned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Ngarewa-Packer said she had used the word in Parliament twice before, &#8220;so today I think they&#8217;re just extremely trigger happy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">Jackson said government MPs had been &#8220;screaming at me from the other side &#8216;get out, get out&#8217;. Who do they think they are?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">He said he had &#8220;a lot of time&#8221; for Pugh but &#8220;then she was yelling at me to get out &#8230; double standards, hypocrisy, the Speaker didn&#8217;t want to hear that, I wanted to make it clear to her, then the National Party was saying &#8216;you get out&#8217;, and I said &#8216;you get out, don&#8217;t tell me to get out&#8217;, then they said &#8216;oh we&#8217;ll call the Sergeant of Arms&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;[They] don&#8217;t have to call the Sergeant of Arms, I&#8217;m not going to cause any trouble, I just wanted to make my point, made my point, and then I left.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori&#8217;s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has been ejected from Parliament after using the c-word. Politicians have been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-603012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603012","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=603012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}