Urgent Debates Declined — Associate Minister of Education—Allegations

I have received a letter from Rodney Hide seeking to debate under Standing Order 373 the announcement that the Associate Minister of Education is to stand aside from his portfolios while an investigation is conducted into allegations against him. The standing aside is a particular case of recent occurrence involving ministerial responsibility.

On 4 May 2004 the Speaker gave a ruling relating to the dismissal of a Minister from the Government in which he gave the results of his research into ministerial resignations and dismissal and their treatment in urgent debate terms. During the period 1990-99 three applications to debate dismissals or resignations were accepted and three were declined. In the period since 1999 four applications have been accepted and three have been declined. Clearly, as the Speaker said, not every ministerial resignation, let alone merely stepping aside, will justify an urgent debate.

In this case the Minister has stood aside while an inquiry is held into allegations that do not relate to official actions taken by the Minister. The matter is obviously not concluded. When an inquiry reports, members have an opportunity to raise the conclusions of that inquiry if this is warranted. Until that point, as the matter still has a way to run, I do not consider that it requires the immediate attention of the House by way of an urgent debate today. That does not preclude an urgent debate in the future, depending upon the outcome of events. I therefore dismiss the application.