Sir Lockwood Smith: Former Speaker of the House on Te Pati Māori suspensions

A former Speaker of the House is reminding MPs the rules of the House must be followed.

The Privileges Committee have suggested three Te Pati Māori MPs be temporarily suspended from Parliament, ranging up to 21 days, for their role in a haka over the Treaty Principles Bill.

Te Pati Māori says these suspensions are the longest in Parliament's history.

Sir Lockwood Smith told Ryan Bridge members need to think before they ignore the rules.

He says the three-week suspension and missing part of the budget debate will hopefully make people take notice.

The recommendation will be put to the House next Tuesday and likely pass. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So three weeks suspension from parliament without pay for arbit again.
Debbie Hanna gets seven days. They'll miss the budget. And
last night the Marti Party posted on their social media
and this is part of the problem that for to
Party Marti, when you lose, you actually win. I mean
they're not ashamed by any of this. They have posted
on their social media. This is the worst punishment handed

(00:21):
down ever in our history. The worst on record was
three days when tangat Fenua resists colonial powers reached for
maximum penalty. This is a warning shot to all of
us to fall in line. Lockwoodsmith, Sir Lockwoodsmith, is the
former Speaker of the House with me this morning, Sir
Lockwood good morning, good morning. Right is this a fair
punishment you reckon?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, you know it's not up to me to comment
on whether it's fair or not. That Parliament has to
maintain its procedures because it is a control and control
of its own law, its own rules. If you like.
The privileges that Parliament has are really really important. They
make it possible for the lawmakers to do their work

(01:03):
and to intimidate another member of the House in the
process of carrying out their duties. In the House. There's
a serious issue and it can't just be taken lightly.
So you know, suspension from the service of the House
is one of the outcomes. The Privilegeous Committee has a

(01:25):
penalty it has to invoke. It can actually imprison people.
You know, I don't think I don't think the Privileges
Committee or the Parliament New Zealand has ever imprisoned someone
for a contempt of the House. But it does have
that power. This is the power to find people and
the power to imprison people. But this suspension from the
service is a reasonably effective, hopefully reasonably effective effective deterrent.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Is this the worst punishment? I mean, are they right
when they say it's the worst punishment that's ever been
handed down? And what about missing the budget?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah? Well I think you know, people members of the
House need to think a little bit for they ignore
the rules of the House I mean, and for members
of de party Maria, I see no reason why when
they're called on to speak, they have freedom of speech
and they can express their views in ways there that

(02:19):
they've considered culturally appropriate. But to interfere with the voting
procedure in the House and seek to intimidate the member
promoting a bill in the House is quite a serious
issue and as I say, I don't think the Privileges
Committee has ever imprisoned anyone and so this is a
pretty pretty severe penalty. Three weeks suspension and missing the

(02:45):
budget parts of the budget debate. I think hopefully we'll
make some people take notice.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
It's interesting because the stunt in parliament. You can do
stunts in Parliament and we've all seen them. And we
had the c word yesterday from Brook van Valden, which
I'm sure you've seen, but that was that was a
stunt that was planned like to party, Maoris. But Brooke
went to the clerk's office and said, can I say,
you know, basically ask permission to do the stunt first

(03:12):
and therefore avoid censure.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think that's a good point, Ryan, that you know,
a speaker wants the House fell to proceed in a
way that works for members and had to party. Malori
gone to the speaker and said, you know, it would
there be a time when we could express our view
in an appropriate way with a hakka. I can't believe

(03:37):
something couldn't have been worked out that would have been acceptable,
but just to interrupt, you know, the voting the voting
procedure on a bill, and it passed through my mind.
Had I been the Speaker, I probably would have, you know,
simply having called on them to express their their vote

(03:57):
recorded they hadn't voted, and that the party my I
already failed to vote against the Treaty Principal's bill and
cleared the galleries, and I wouldn't have suspended the House,
so I would have kept the House going. Keeping Parliament
going is terribly important. But that's just my personal view,
all right.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
I appreciate your time this morning, Sir Locklin Smith, former
Speaker of the Houses. For more from Early Edition with
Ryan Bridge, Listen live to News Talks. It'd be from
five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio