Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sir Lockwood Smith: Former Speaker of the House on Te Pati Māori suspensions

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Sir Lockwood Smith: Former Speaker of the House on Te Pati Māori suspensions · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So three weeks suspension from parliament without pay for arbit again.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Debbie Hanna gets seven days. They'll miss the budget. And
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: last night the Marti Party posted on their social media
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  Speaker 1: and this is part of the problem that for to
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  Speaker 1: Party Marti, when you lose, you actually win. I mean
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  Speaker 1: they're not ashamed by any of this. They have posted
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  Speaker 1: on their social media. This is the worst punishment handed
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  Speaker 1: down ever in our history. The worst on record was
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  Speaker 1: three days when tangat Fenua resists colonial powers reached for
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  Speaker 1: maximum penalty. This is a warning shot to all of
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  Speaker 1: us to fall in line. Lockwoodsmith, Sir Lockwoodsmith, is the
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  Speaker 1: former Speaker of the House with me this morning, Sir
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  Speaker 1: Lockwood good morning, good morning. Right is this a fair
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  Speaker 1: punishment you reckon?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know it's not up to me to comment
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  Speaker 2: on whether it's fair or not. That Parliament has to
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  Speaker 2: maintain its procedures because it is a control and control
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  Speaker 2: of its own law, its own rules. If you like.
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  Speaker 2: The privileges that Parliament has are really really important. They
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  Speaker 2: make it possible for the lawmakers to do their work
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  Speaker 2: and to intimidate another member of the House in the
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  Speaker 2: process of carrying out their duties. In the House. There's
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  Speaker 2: a serious issue and it can't just be taken lightly.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, suspension from the service of the House
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  Speaker 2: is one of the outcomes. The Privilegeous Committee has a
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  Speaker 2: penalty it has to invoke. It can actually imprison people.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think I don't think the Privileges
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  Speaker 2: Committee or the Parliament New Zealand has ever imprisoned someone
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  Speaker 2: for a contempt of the House. But it does have
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  Speaker 2: that power. This is the power to find people and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: the power to imprison people. But this suspension from the
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  Speaker 2: service is a reasonably effective, hopefully reasonably effective effective deterrent.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Is this the worst punishment? I mean, are they right
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  Speaker 1: when they say it's the worst punishment that's ever been
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  Speaker 1: handed down? And what about missing the budget?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Well I think you know, people members of the
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  Speaker 2: House need to think a little bit for they ignore
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  Speaker 2: the rules of the House I mean, and for members
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  Speaker 2: of de party Maria, I see no reason why when
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  Speaker 2: they're called on to speak, they have freedom of speech
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  Speaker 2: and they can express their views in ways there that
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  Speaker 2: they've considered culturally appropriate. But to interfere with the voting
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  Speaker 2: procedure in the House and seek to intimidate the member
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  Speaker 2: promoting a bill in the House is quite a serious
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  Speaker 2: issue and as I say, I don't think the Privileges
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  Speaker 2: Committee has ever imprisoned anyone and so this is a
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  Speaker 2: pretty pretty severe penalty. Three weeks suspension and missing the
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  Speaker 2: budget parts of the budget debate. I think hopefully we'll
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  Speaker 2: make some people take notice.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: It's interesting because the stunt in parliament. You can do
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  Speaker 1: stunts in Parliament and we've all seen them. And we
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  Speaker 1: had the c word yesterday from Brook van Valden, which
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen, but that was that was a
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  Speaker 1: stunt that was planned like to party, Maoris. But Brooke
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  Speaker 1: went to the clerk's office and said, can I say,
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  Speaker 1: you know, basically ask permission to do the stunt first
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  Speaker 1: and therefore avoid censure.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I think that's a good point, Ryan, that you know,
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  Speaker 2: a speaker wants the House fell to proceed in a
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  Speaker 2: way that works for members and had to party. Malori
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  Speaker 2: gone to the speaker and said, you know, it would
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  Speaker 2: there be a time when we could express our view
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  Speaker 2: in an appropriate way with a hakka. I can't believe
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  Speaker 2: something couldn't have been worked out that would have been acceptable,
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  Speaker 2: but just to interrupt, you know, the voting the voting
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  Speaker 2: procedure on a bill, and it passed through my mind.
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  Speaker 2: Had I been the Speaker, I probably would have, you know,
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  Speaker 2: simply having called on them to express their their vote
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  Speaker 2: recorded they hadn't voted, and that the party my I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: already failed to vote against the Treaty Principal's bill and
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  Speaker 2: cleared the galleries, and I wouldn't have suspended the House,
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  Speaker 2: so I would have kept the House going. Keeping Parliament
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  Speaker 2: going is terribly important. But that's just my personal view,
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  Speaker 2: all right.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning, Sir Locklin Smith, former
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Speaker of the Houses. For more from Early Edition with
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, Listen live to News Talks. It'd be from
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio