Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Liam Hehir: Political Commentator on the Te Pati Māori suspension debate

Transcript

Liam Hehir: Political Commentator on the Te Pati Māori suspension debate · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Votes on the three week suspension for Debbie and Rawdi
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: today in seven days for my Pete Clark, the public
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: gallery will sit empty. The debate could drag on with
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: filibustering every MP able to speak.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Liam.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Here is a columnist and political commentator with me this
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: morning them, Good morning, good morning. You're right, this is unprecedented.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: You know, normally you just get named, you apologize. It
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: would be the worst suspension since Muldoon in the eighties.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Is it too far?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Well, look, that's for Parliament to decide, and it's a
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: really important thing. But can I just point out something
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: that's going to annoy me a little bit, is, yes,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the punishment would be unprecedented, but the offense is pretty
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: unprecedented too, right, And so sort of the idea that
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: there's some sort of sort of arbitrary or outrageous thing
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: about a never before I heard of punishment needs to
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: be in the context of the fact that it's never
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: before heard of offense, so in breach of parliamentary privilege.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: So it's pretty yes, it's here, but the circumstances were severe.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I agree with you, But so for me that the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the aggravating factor was the pistol gesture by Debbie, But
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: then why why was her sentence not longer? And what
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: about Julianne Jenta, Well it certainly, well.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: That certainly was an aggregating, aggravating factor, but really the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: truly aggravating factor is the complete lack of remorse and
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: contrition and and that's the difference between julian and Jena.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: And also, and let's not forget that Penny Hellaby is
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: also up for a vote today because he was also
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: complained of to the Privileges Committee and in both cases
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: apologize unreservedly accepted the authority of the House to regulate
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: its own affairs and conduct its own discipline of the members.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: And you know, we're treated with some leniency as a result,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: whereas here we have a continuing, continuing contempt for the
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: ability of Parliament to even regulate the conduct of its
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: own members. And that is more than anything as aggravating factor.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So what has to happen today, because this could drag
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: on and on and on. Does National need to cut
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a deal with the labor Because from where I'm sitting,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: New Zeam first Act to Party, Malori, the Greens, they
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: all have a political interest in dragging this out but
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the bigger parties are the ones probably who will actually
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: lose if this starts to look messy and too long.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: You're right about that. So the small parties always have
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: an incentive for it to be as much of a
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: stunt as possible because that plays their base. But really
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the key person is Jerry Brownley. So this is an
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: unusual kind of situation when you're debating matters of privilege.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: When the house is you're not subject to the normal
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: time limits because it's sort of it's a special sort
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: of circumstance. And so in the theory, you know, speeches
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: can go on for as long as they want. They're
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: not subject to a time limit, and so you have
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: what might look in some ways like an American filibuster,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: where are speaker can get up and talk forever to
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: protest what's happening and come up to the whole business
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: of the house. But Jerry Browne is the speaker of
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: the House. It has the unique ability to regulate how
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: long people speak, to say that they're repeating themselves, that
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: they're talking about irrelevant things, and also to close off debate.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: So actually, Jerry Brownlee, he holds all the power in the.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Situation, interesting Takelem really appreciate that. Thanks for coming on
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: lim Here, columnist and political commentator with us this morning.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: That will take place this afternoon.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:38
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