Appointments — Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers

Further to an agreement reached by the Business Committee last night, I seek leave for the motions appointing the Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers to be taken as one question.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course being followed? There is no objection.

I move, That William Lindsay Tisch be appointed Deputy Speaker, and that Richard John Barker and Eric Wilbur Roy be appointed Assistant Speakers.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.

💬 Hon Dr Michael Cullen: Mr Speaker—

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am at the very start of my apprenticeship in this job, you will understand, and I think I have procedurally misled you. I thank my colleague across the road for recognising that. Might I move again notices of motion Nos 1 to 3 in my name appointing the Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers.

The member moved and sat down. He moved, presumably, a debatable motion, which is now able to be debated. He cannot now say: “Well, sorry, I made yet another mistake, following my failure yesterday to tell Mr Key to get up and speak after your appointment, Mr Speaker; can I carry on from here?”. I think I did my hardest yesterday, in the Business Committee, to sort things out for the gentleman opposite, who did not know what to do.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order!

It is a bit rich for him now to expect to be—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: When I am on my feet the member will sit down. Points of order are meant to be quite brief. The member made his point well. The Hon Gerry Brownlee.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to move this motion.

💬 Hon Dr Michael Cullen: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am sure that points of order should be made briefly, but also it is normal for the Speaker to give a ruling on them, not just to pass on as though the point of order had not been made.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I thought that I had made clear to the member that his point was well made. His point was correct. I come back to the Hon Gerry Brownlee to speak to the Government motion that he has moved.

💬 Hon Dr Michael Cullen: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. If the point was well made, then presumably I now have the call to speak to the previous motion, which was that these matters should be taken immediately.

💬 Hon Rodney Hide: I think it is correct that Dr Cullen rose to take the call, but the call was not granted. It is actually up to the Speaker to grant a call. I think Dr Cullen would agree with me that if the call had been given, he would have it, but, in fact, the call was not given.

💬 Hon Dr Michael Cullen: Speaking to that point of order, Madam Speaker—sorry, Mr Speaker; the wig confused me—I think the point needs to be made at this stage, rather obviously, that if a person has called for the call, it is not sufficient for somebody else on the other side of the House to stand up and move another motion; something has to happen at that stage. If Mr Brownlee was seeking a call to speak to the actual motion, he could do so, but having moved a motion and sat down, he cannot then stand up and take the call. He either moves the motion and speaks, or moves the motion and sits down.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Thank you, Dr Cullen. Your point is well made. You are correct. The honourable member has forfeited his ability to speak to the motion he moved. Is any other member seeking to take that call?

I now seek leave—without losing my right to speak—for Mr Brownlee to speak. I would hate this Parliament to start off without the chance for the Leader of the House to actually move a motion and speak to it as he was supposed to do.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action? There appears to be no objection.

Well, thank goodness for Methusaleh on the other side of the House knowing so much about these procedural things! I think it is fascinating that although I can admit a mistake, the reason why those members are sitting on that side of the Chamber is that they never did. Anyway, having dug myself out of a small amount of difficulty, with the assistance of the Hon Dr Michael Cullen, it is my honour to move the appointment of a Deputy Speaker and two Assistant Speakers. I will mention those people in order: firstly, the nomination for Deputy Speaker is Mr Lindsay Tisch, who is a member of the National Party of long standing—

💬 Hon Member: Short standing.

—no, long standing—and the nominations for the positions of Assistant Speaker are Mr Eric Roy of the National Party and Mr Richard Barker of the Labour Party. The idea, Mr Speaker, is that these people support you in your effort to maintain order in this House. Might I take this opportunity, at a somewhat disjointed point, to congratulate you on your success in being elected Speaker of this House, and to pledge my support to you in that role, given that your role is, in fact, to support the best interests of the House, on behalf of the nation.

Collectively, these gentlemen have about 39 years of service in this House. More important, each of them has been a party whip and therefore is very, very familiar with the processes that guide the way in which Parliament operates. I am sure that they will bring not only those long years of service but also that very tangible experience of the parliamentary process to the work that they do. Each of them has, I think, the strongest possible support from his own party, and I am confident that each will receive that support from the other members inside the House.

I take the opportunity at this point to recognise H V Ross Robertson, a gentleman who was an Assistant Speaker for the 9 years prior to this Parliament, and who made a significant contribution in that regard. I know that Mr Robertson, by his own choice, was not available for appointment to that office in this Parliament, and we respect that, but I do want to record the Government’s considerable respect for the dignity that he brought to the job, and to express the view that those who take up the role that he is exiting are able to do exactly the same.

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I say that we strongly support the appointment of Lindsay Tisch as your deputy, and the appointment of Eric Roy and Richard John Barker to the Assistant Speaker positions, to also support your work.

The Labour Party will be supporting this motion. We recognise the right of the new Government, with a clear majority, to move the motions regarding these appointments in the fashion it sees fit. I do want to make a few comments. The first, obviously, is to join with Mr Brownlee in congratulating you, Mr Speaker, on your appointment. We look forward to working cooperatively with you on many occasions and to assisting you from time to time with points of order, as they may prove to be either necessary or desirable—the two, of course, not always being the same thing within Parliament.

The second point I want to make is that the House has just seen an example of what we have already become familiar with previously from the members opposite—in the Business Committee and elsewhere—which is that the new Government has not yet actually learnt how to run its own business. Indeed, as at 8.30 this morning, it was still unable to tell us what business it was taking under urgency this week, but one could hear the stress in the voice of Mr Brownlee as he conveyed that news to the senior Opposition whip. We look forward to helping him further on these matters, as we have with these appointments today. It had been originally intended to move these appointments during urgency rather than before urgency, which would have invited the Opposition to debate each of these motions down to closure, which, I believe, would not have been in the best interests of good order in the House.

There are one or two additional points I would like to make. It is unfortunate, I believe—but perhaps inevitable, given certain changes—that for the first time for many years there is no woman amongst the four presiding officers within the House. I hope that that situation can be changed as expeditiously as possible—without suggesting that anybody should undergo any drastic changes in that particular regard. Secondly, I think it is slightly unfortunate that the Government did not decide to follow the precedent set following the last election, whereby the two most senior positions were shared between the two major parties within the House. But I understand that the Government has the right to move in that regard.

I should also say, without wanting to cast any aspersions upon Mr Tisch, who is a person I greatly respect in terms of his performance within the House over many years, that I personally would have preferred to see Mr Roy as the Deputy Speaker, because he has had long experience in the Assistant Speaker’s role. He has very large respect on this side of the House in terms of his abilities, his breadth of knowledge, and, indeed, his very wide experience in terms of reading and other matters. But that is not to be the case, and, Mr Speaker, it is good to see that you have both a small hand and a large hand to help you in the two presiding officers from the National Party. The Hon Rick Barker will be happy to assist in those matters, as well, as we move forward.

With those few remarks, I say I am very happy that we are supporting these motions. We look forward to working with the new presiding officers.

Mr Speaker, I rise to speak on behalf of the ACT Party to support the appointment motion, and I join other members of this House in congratulating you on your appointment.

As I said, we support the motions. We look forward to the appointments of the Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers and their helping and assisting you to keep a fair and balanced overview of the proceedings of this House. We look forward to each of you allowing within these walls the freedom of speech that we have become accustomed to and that is fair and proper in a democratic society.

The ACT Party also acknowledges the huge contribution that H V Ross Robertson made to this House. We think he did a fine job as Assistant Speaker over the last 9 years, and we always found him to be very fair in his rulings during proceedings and also during points of order. In this short call I acknowledge the contribution he made; I congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your appointment; and I say that we look forward to the appointment of the Deputy Speaker and Assistant Speakers to assist you.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your appointment, and I made reference to that yesterday, in Māori.

I stand on behalf of the Māori Party to support the motion to appoint Lindsay Tisch as the Deputy Speaker, and Rick Barker and Eric Roy as Assistant Speakers. These roles are crucial to the House and enable the Speaker to carry out the role with great distinction. We require those in the Chair to be absolutely clear in their judgment, impartial, and fair, and to uphold the dignity of the House. In this respect, I would like to acknowledge the honourable Ross Robertson for his care in the House as an Assistant Speaker, particularly with regard to Māori language—his coming forward and using it openly and consistently. I hope that practice might be followed by the new Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Assistant Speakers.

The Māori Party is proud to have been a signatory to the code of conduct pioneered by four parties in this House—United Future, ACT, the Māori Party, and the Greens. We believe that the code of conduct actually assists MPs to carry out their duties, and helps the public to have confidence in their parliamentary representatives.

I would just like to acknowledge the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, and the Assistant Speakers. Thank you.

Motion agreed to.