David McGee

I’ve been involved in politics for 20 years and in my first year of involvement I purchased David McGee’s book – Parliamentary Practice in New Zealand. A sign of the ultimate political geek.

McGee was Deputy Clerk of the House back then and shortly afterwards became Clerk and has been so ever since.

There is a nice interview with McGee in the NZ Herald.

I always enjoy reading McGee’s proposals to improve the operations of Parliament. MPs are often too timid to take many of them up, which is a pity. His latest ones were in May 2003 and are here.

What I’ve never worked out though is why he doesn’t just give himself a microphone which transmits to the Speaker only, so that when giving advice for rulings he can stay in his seat rather than have to jump up, turn around and go crouch next to the Speaker!