Points of Order — Personal Explanation—Leave Sought to Correct

I seek leave to correct a personal explanation I made to the House yesterday. [Interruption] It is all right—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! Leave is sought for that course of action. Is there any objection? [Interruption] Order! I must be able to hear clearly. Is there any objection? There is no objection.

Yesterday in relation to the—

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: No, a point is being—

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: There is objection.

Order! I apologise if I did not hear objection. That is why I called for more silence—so that I could hear. I apologise. It seems that I will need to put the leave again to clarify the situation, because if there is objection I should not ignore that. I did not intentionally ignore it. I feel I should put the leave to the House again. Leave is sought for the Hon Maurice Williamson to correct a personal explanation he made yesterday. Is there any objection? There is objection.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I just want to make it clear to the Government that the Labour Party will not speak if the Minister chooses to correct his ministerial explanation by way of ministerial statement.

I appreciate the member’s attempt to be constructive, but I am not sure there is a provision for that—

💬 Hon Trevor Mallard: Well, he can do it if he wants to—any time.

The member can certainly make a ministerial statement at any time. That is quite correct.