Gerry Brownlee, Speaker of the House of Representatives, in the Chair. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee has advised MPs to take complaints to the commissioner for parliamentary standards - who has not received any yet, he says.
He says he will also be more vigilant in upholding standards, but the "speaker is not and cannot be omnipresent".
ACT leader David Seymour has removed the lapel pin which had previously prevented him from answering questions, but is ideologically opposed to the commissioner.
His MP Karen Chhour, the children's minister - who last week was telling reporters she was feeling unsafe and under constant personal attack - says she will need to have a think about whether she can use that process.
Seymour and Brownlee had clashed the previous week over allegations of racial abuse against ACT MPs, and the speaker's response.
ACT MPs then used their party lapel pins, in a move later dubbed 'lapelgate', to protest the speaker's handling of their complaint; refusing to take them off despite the display of any party logos in the debating chamber being against the rules.
Brownlee delivered his ruling as Parliament resumed for Question Time on Tuesday.
"In recent days there has been considerable public comment and interest on Parliamentary standards. There has been considerable focus on the speaker's role in curbing inappropriate behaviour in Parliament, in the Parliamentary complex, in social media and other media.
"Sadly this is not a new phenomenon," he said, referring back to the Debbie Francis report on culture at the Parliamentary workplace, a damning review which led to significant improvements.
That report had recommended a commissioner for parliamentary standards be set up to hear complaints, and Lyn Provost - a former auditor-general - began in the role last year.
"The commissioner's role is to receive and investigate complaints that assert contravention of acceptable Parliamentary standards. The matters of public interest over recent days most certainly fall into that category," Brownlee said.
"The safeground of the commissioner for parliamentary standards provides members and staff with a less time-sensitive opportunity to raise matters which reflect poorly on the culture of this House.
"As of 2pm today, the commissioner for parliamentary standards has not received any formal complaints or reports on any matters relating to standards of behaviour in the Parliamentary complex since her appointment."
He said he had - since becoming speaker - taken the view MPs should be trusted to behave appropriately and "in a manner that reflects the choice of voters to send them to this House ... that was perhaps too hopeful a position".
Any comment which touched on individual or collective personal reflection was not acceptable in the chamber, he said, and presiding officers - the Speaker himself or his deputies - would be "much more vigilant as we move forward".
Seymour, who had been seen wearing his ACT-labelled lapel pin just moments earlier, was not sporting it in the House.
"Oh, yeah, look, the speaker's said the pins are really important to him, I think that's a bit weird but ultimately we're here to do the job," he told reporters when heading into the House.
Emerging afterwards, he said Brownlee had "very graciously accepted that he needed to do it different and better", but suggested he would not be taking any complaints to the Commissioner.
"I've always opposed the idea of a parliamentary commissioner on standards. The idea that an unelected person can sanction elected MPs is actually an affront to the voter," he said.
"In my view parliament should be a self-governing community of elected members judged by the voters ... we're going to take the speaker's advice given today that he expects us to raise issues with him when it comes to parliamentary proceedings. And we're very happy with that."
Chhour, asked about whether she would be complaining to the commissioner, said she would "look into what that was about and have a good think about it".
"Everybody has a bad day, so you just pick yourself up and carry on. I was put here to do a job and I continue to do that job.
"I just have to have a think about that when I go back to my office, because Gerry's just stated that and I want to make sure that is actually a process I can do, and I'll think about how to do that."
