The first week of Parliament

Jo Moir at Stuff writes:

The new Government will be sighing with relief they survived their first week of Parliament, but some basic mistakes mean they’ll hardly be popping the champagne. …

What should have been a straight-forward, nothing-to-see-here formality – the election of Trevor Mallard as Speaker of the House – turned into a comedy of errors and a series of unbelievable photos in the House that ran front and centre across every media outlet in the country.

The only thing missing for those in the press gallery watching the shambles unfold was popcorn.

It had become apparent that something was brewing. Shadow Leader of the House Simon Bridges was looking shady, he was doing far too much consulting with his colleague Gerry Brownlee and chief whip Jami-Lee Ross.

And then it came. Labour’s Ruth Dyson stood to nominate Mallard and Bridges jumped to his feet for a point of order to question whether those MPs who weren’t in the House and hadn’t been sworn in earlier that day were able to cast a vote for Speaker.

Mallard looked like he wanted to be sick, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins looked like he was about to blow a gasket, and Ardern stared Bridges down with a look that could kill.

Within seconds Bridges had declared to Hipkins they had “assumed the majority” and threatened a vote as Hipkins scrambled to work out his own numbers.

Hipkins knew he needed to fix it and he had to fix it fast in order to save Mallard, who was growing paler by the second.

The whole palava actually had nothing to do with Mallard as Speaker – National leader English was already on record saying he had no issue with him getting the job.

It was about numbers on select committees and Bridges being furious with Hipkins for not even taking his calls about Labour’s plans to reduce the size of committees.

So arrogant to refuse to even discuss the issue with the Shadow Leader of the House.

Both Hipkins and Ardern maintain they knew they had the numbers to win the vote, but would Hipkins really have gone into such panic mode if he was so sure?

The defence that Labour did a deal to avoid a vote on Mallard’s election as Speaker simply doesn’t wash.

Ardern and Hipkins argued they wanted Mallard elected unopposed and a vote jeopardised that. 

It’s just nuts to think the chaos that played out was better than having a vote. Chaos caused national headlines, a vote would have been a brief at worst.

And Hipkins himself moved Mallard against Carter in 2013. A very unconvincing lie.

Hipkins has had a rough first week as the Opposition put him under pressure for threatening charter schools with closure in this column last week, before he’d even spoken to the school sponsors.

Again such arrogance. The pupils and families are having to find out from the media, rather than having the Minister talk directly to schools.