Points of Order — Chamber, Lobbies, and Galleries—Audio System

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Question time has been quite robust, as it should be in a vibrant democracy, but listeners on the cross benches and the backbenches often have a great deal of difficulty in hearing. Might I suggest—the issue was raised by the Hon Peter Dunne in the last session, I think—that listeners aids might be appropriate, as we once had in this Chamber before the installation of these grotesque overhead ugly-looking sensors. I endorse what the Hon Peter Dunne said on previous occasions, and I request respectfully that you, as the Speaker, look at that possibility.

The member may not have been in the House when I explained, earlier today, that, in fact, there is an induction system available in the Chamber. The Sergeant-at-Arms has receivers. If the member wishes to avail himself of that system, he can use the earpiece that is used for simultaneous interpretation and can get a direct feed from the floor of the House. I explained to members that that is available. However, having said that, I am not happy with the performance of the sound system, especially for members at the back of the House, and, I might even say, for the Speaker too, for that matter. Work is ongoing; we are identifying dead spots in the House, and the designers of the system will be doing more work—it is a very sophisticated system—to try to get it to perform better.

Just on that matter, I think one of the other problems is that under the systems that have operated here in the past, a lot of the interjections were not picked up by the microphone system. Subsequent to your suggestion today that perhaps it was just members being rowdy—and I think that was certainly part of the problem today—I did notice that a lot of the interjections are just as audible as the comments that are coming from whoever might be answering or asking a question. It was particularly evident in the case of Minister Collins when she was answering her questions. It was much easier to hear the comments from the other side of the House than it was to hear her answer, and she is only four seats down from where I am sitting. I am not sure whether the whole system in here has ever been tested by the designers with the House in full session. It would be a very different Chamber with only one or two people sitting in it.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: The point that the honourable Leader of the House makes is absolutely valid. Live microphones are very sensitive, and we are concerned that they are picking up a lot of interjection and background noise that adds to the difficulty in hearing. I think that what the member says is absolutely right, and that the final solution to this problem may involve bringing technicians on to the floor of the House while question time is under way. I have already sought the approval of the Business Committee to allow that to happen, because normally someone who is not a member is not allowed on to the floor of the House while the House is in session. But I have already sought approval for that to happen, so that technicians can listen from the floor to what is going on during question time.

We ought to get better performance out of the system. It is meant to be a good system; it is meant to perform at a high level. But there is a wide degree of dissatisfaction with its performance, because it is not good enough. Members need to be able to hear. I think that what both members have said is right, and that especially what the Hon Gerry Brownlee has said is valid—that the system is picking up a lot of background noise, which makes it even harder to hear the person on his or her feet. I apologise to members that this is happening. I regret that it is happening, and we will move now. We have the designers, I think. If they are not here, then they are arriving very shortly, and we will be moving on it as quickly as we can.