Gerry Brownlee: Speaker of the House reflects on the behaviour in Parliament in 2024 - Holiday Breakfast

Have the standards in New Zealand’s Parliament been slipping? 

Between constant interruptions and heckling, name calling, and a haka towards the end of last year, 2024 was filled with events that drew concern about the behaviour of our MPs. 

Speaker of the House, Gerry Brownlee, told Tim Beveridge that since there is now a party of reasonable size that wants to make cultural expressions that recognise their voters, they need to ask how that fits in. 

He says there’s a lot of tension surrounding it, and they’re looking at ways in which they might formalise some aspects so that there isn’t the element of surprise or ambush. 

Brownlee says that in the end, New Zealand has a very safe Parliament, and people shouldn’t lose sight of that. 

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