An embarrassing kerfuffle in Parliament's debating chamber on Wednesday provided fun lessons on how the House works; or is meant to.
It began with a surprising and unusual period of silence in the House during Wednesday’s extra morning sitting. Debate on a bill had ended slightly early (for the lack of an MP to speak for Te Pāti Māori), and the House moved to the next item on the order paper.
The new bill to be debated wasn’t inspiring or even controversial; it was a ‘regulatory systems’ bill, updating various small things in Social Security. The problem was no one stood up to speak on it. Cue uncomfortable silence – something pretty rare in the chamber.
National Party MP for Taupo, Louise Upston in Select Committee during the 2023 Estimates Hearings. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Every bill that goes through Parliament has an MP in charge of it. Government bills are only shepherded by ministers.. When a government bill is announced in the House, the minister in charge of it stands up to ‘take a call’ (i.e. speak) and formally proposes that the bill be read, in this case for the first time.
The Action
The minister in charge of the bill up for debate was National’s Louise Upston, but she was missing from the chamber.
Her office later revealed that she had been in a Cabinet Committee meeting. She had, as she put it to RNZ, “stuffed up” by not having her speech sitting ready in the House in case someone else had to speak on her behalf. She wasn’t alone in the screw-up, or the worst offender.
It is not rare for ministers to be unavailable to speak on a bill. It can happen for various reasons. Any other minister can speak on their behalf, just as any other minister can answer questions on their behalf – it’s one of the advantages of the executive being envisaged as a collective.
In the House, the silence was broken by Labour Whip Arena Williams, who jumped to her feet to prompt the assistant speaker in the Chair to make the necessary call. As you would expect from a Whip, Williams knew Parliament’s rules well enough to realise the implication of there being no minister rising to take the first call.
On the governing side of the debating chamber they seemed slower on the uptake. None of National’s official whips were in the House, but they were being covered by Tim Van de Molen and Dana Kirkpatrick, both of whom seemed caught out by the silence.
After a few seconds, Kirkpatrick moved down to the Table (in the centre of the debating chamber), where she took a copy of the Bill (that no-one was yet talking about), and passed it back to Melissa Lee, who did nothing with it (which was very odd), but more on that in a moment.
Eventually, Tim Van de Molen began making somewhat ineffective efforts to pad for time in case the minister suddenly and miraculously arrived.
But as Pooh would say, ‘the more he looked, the more she wasn’t there’.
After consulting with the Clerk at the Table, the presiding officer, Assistant Speaker Maureen Pugh (National), had little option – she discharged the Bill and moved the House on to the next item on the agenda.
None of that might seem particularly noteworthy, but it was embarrassing. When a government minister forgets to turn up to champion one of its own pieces of legislation it doesn’t look great. David Parker suffered the same embarrassment in 2018. When no one in the chamber seems to know how to react to such an oversight it looks worse.
Melissa Lee was the minister rostered on to be in the House. She should have but didn’t stand and take the call in Louise Upston’s place. She was the only person present who could. That was why Kirkpatrick had dashed to the front to get a copy of the Bill for Lee, so she could step in and speak, but for some unknown reason she never took a call.
Melissa Lee, who was the minister rostered on to be in the chamber on Wednesday morning. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
The Lessons
The best thing about MP screw-ups is the excuse they provide for explaining aspects of how Parliament works. Here are a few:
ONE
The reason that each party always has at least one MP acting as a whip in the chamber is so that this person can make sure MPs rostered to speak are there when they need to be. That is why there are telephones built into the whips’ desks. Most parties use a messaging app for such comms these days, but the phone is a useful backup. MPs cannot make calls on cellphones in the chamber.
TWO
Other than managing attendance, it is the House duty-whip’s job to manage the options if someone fails to show, or something else weird happens. Arena Williams demonstrated what a whip is expected to do; spot a problem or opportunity, know the rules and react quickly to take advantage of an opportunity, or to solve the problem.
THREE
Parliament’s rules about a necessary quorum in the debating chamber are pretty slim. Just three individuals must be in the House for it to debate: a Speaker, a Clerk and a Minister. No opposition MP is required (to prevent an opposition from boycotting business).
There must always be a minister in the House. If a minister is absent, business pauses and the bells are rung. If no minister turns up within five minutes the House adjourns for the day.
FOUR
In order to replace the missing minister and propose the bill to the House, Melissa Lee didn’t need to know anything about it. All that is required is one sentence: “I move that the [Bill Name] be now read a first time.” Strictly speaking she should then also nominate a select committee to consider the bill, but which committee would do that would not have been mysterious to anyone.
Lee could have then sat down, having done her job. She did not.
FIVE
Despite some claims to the contrary, this bill does not now die having been discharged. If it had been proposed to the House it would have had a slightly more complex fate, but it was never actually proposed, so it can return quickly.
It may need to receive permission (again) from the Business Committee, because it doesn’t quite fall inside Parliament’s rules for an Omnibus Bill [one that affects numerous pieces of existing legislation but should still have a unifying purpose]. That shouldn’t be difficult.
It will need to be reintroduced though, and with a new name. Usually Parliament manages this kind of problem by adding the number 2 to the end. It’s not exactly an exciting solution, but it works.
