Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why has Parliament become such a circus?

I can't blame you if your assessment of Parliament today is that it's become a circus, because what happened today is kind of hard to defend or even explain.

Chlöe was kicked out, Brownlee suspended her for a week and all of the Government parties voted for that punishment - and that includes New Zealand First, before Winston Peters then got up to tell Jerry Brownlee that the punishment wasn't fair, even though he just voted for the punishment.

And then Debbie got up and said the C-word again.

Now, Chlöe did actually break the rules. I mean, this is another one of those seemingly arbitrary or hard to explain rules in Parliament - that MPs can't accuse each other of being cowards.

Nick Smith did it in 2003, he accused MPs across the house of not having the spine to debate a vote. He withdrew and apologized.

Steve Chadwick did it in 2007, she accused the opposition of being absolutely gutless and spineless. She withdrew and apologized.

John Key did it in 2015, quite famously when he yelled at Labour to get some guts over the war, but he got away with it and actually probably shouldn't have.

So Chlöe did break the rules.

But then, Debbie got up and said the C-word, and she didn't break the rules. So explain that. How is accusing other MPs of being spineless worse than dropping the C-bomb in the House of Representatives?

I mean, sure, one is aimed at someone and the other one is just a swear word that's been dropped. But when you get into explaining that level of nuance on offensiveness, I think you've lost the audience.

Plus, why is Gerry Brownlee all of a sudden the tough cop? 

I mean, this is the guy who was wringing his hands over the Māori Party getting kicked out of Parliament for 3 weeks for the haka in David Seymour's face and for refusing to turn up to the Privileges Committee and for them leaking the recommended punishment from the Privileges Committee.

But when Chlöe says basically the same thing that John Key once said without punishment, Jerry comes down on her like a ton of bricks.

Frankly, none of this makes sense anymore.

I mean, it does on a level of detail and minutia, sure, but explaining it to a normal person, no sense whatsoever.

But guess who's loving this? Chlöe's loving this, because Chlöe's learned from Te Pāti Māori and the haka that there's one surefire way to get attention, and that's to break the rules of Parliament and not be sorry.

What a circus.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, well, I can't blame you if your assessment of
Parliament today is that it's become a circus, because what
happened today is kind of hard to defend or we
even explain. Chloe was kicked out. Brownly suspended her for
a week. All of the government parties voted for that punishment,
and that includes New Zealand first before Winston Peters then
got up to tell Jerry Brownly that the punishment wasn't fair,

(00:20):
even though he just voted for the punishment, and then
Debbie got up and said the C word again. Now
Chloe did actually break the rules. I mean, this is
another one of those seemingly arbitrary or hard to explain
rules in Parliament that MPs can't accuse each other of
being cowards. Nick Smith did it in two thousand and three.
He accused MPs of not across the House of not
having the spine to debate a vote. He withdrew and apologized.

(00:43):
Steve Chadwick did it in two thousand and seven. She
accused the Opposition of being absolutely gutless and spineless. She
withdrew and apologized. John Key did it in twenty fifteen,
quite famously when he yelled at Labor to get some
guts over the war, but he got away with it
and actually probably shouldn't have. So Chloe did break the rules.
But then Debbie got up and said the sea word
and she didn't break the rules. So explain that. How

(01:05):
is accusing other MPs of being spineless worse than dropping
the sea bomb in the House of Representatives. I mean,
sure one is aimed at someone, the other one is
just a swear word that's been dropped. But when you
get into explaining that level of nuance on offensiveness, I
think you've lost the audience. Plus, why is Jerry Brownly
all of a sudden the tough cop. I mean, this
is the guy who was wringing his hands over the

(01:25):
Maldi Party getting kicked out of Parliament for three weeks
for the hucker in David Seymour's face and for refusing
to turn up to the Privileges Committee, and for then
leaking the recommended punishment from the Privileges Committee. But when
Chloe says basically the same thing that John Key once
said without punishment, Jerry comes down on her like a
ton of bricks. Frankly, none of this makes sense anymore.
I mean, it does on a level of detail and minutia, sure,

(01:46):
but explaining it to a normal person no sense whatsoever.
But guess who's loving this. Chloe's loving this because Chloe's
learned from Tapatsimhardi and the Hucker that there's one sure
fire away to get attention and that's to break the
rules of Parliament and not be sorry. What a circus.
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(02:09):
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