Motions — Speaker—No Confidence

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek a point of clarification, which concerns the notice of motion that I sought, under leave, to put to the House. If that is the standard in this House—to vote without hearing the argument from the other side—then on a voice vote no such motion can be put. Pray tell me how one can put such a motion, given the fact that we have looked at the Standing Orders and at precedents going back a long way in this country’s history. I want to know how someone who believes the House should have lost confidence—and members have lost confidence—in the Speaker can have such a motion put and voted on.

The member can put down a notice of motion, and there are no special rules for notices of motion lodged by the leader of New Zealand First. Notices are lodged between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on any sitting day; I refer to Standing Order 94(1). The member’s notice was lodged between those times this morning. If the notice is in order, it is placed on the Table when the House meets—as this one has been. It is then set down as a Government or member’s order of the day, in accordance with Standing Order 95. This notice, as it comes from a member who is not a Minister, will be set down as a member’s order of the day for the next day on which the House sits, which is Tuesday, 5 October, and it will appear on the Order Paper for that day. It will be deleted from the Order Paper 1 week after its first appearance—that is, it will appear on the Order Papers for 5, 6, and 7 October, and will be omitted from the Order Paper for Tuesday, 12 October.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. As a matter of clarification, that is my very point. If the motion has not been debated within a certain time, it goes off the Order Paper. Given that I believe this is a matter of urgency, I want to know how it can be debated in this democracy in which we live.

The member needs leave from the House. The member has sought that, and it has been declined.