Speaker’s Rulings — Tabling of Documents—Material Already Available to Members

Honourable members, following points of order raised last week, I have given further thought to the tabling of documents by leave. The primary purpose of the procedure for seeking leave to table a document is to inform the proceedings of the House by making available to members documents that would not otherwise be available. Speakers’ rulings make it clear that members should not seek leave to table documents that are already available as part of the House’s proceedings available on the Parliament website; legislation, Government media releases, and other reports available on Government websites; recent media articles from the major daily newspapers and national weeklies or their websites, and from the major radio or television broadcasters or their websites. The intention is that documents that are not readily available to members that may be of significance, or may be useful for members’ information, should be able to be tabled where the House gives its consent.

The challenge for the Speaker is what constitutes readily available in the context of the internet. Although today most documents are on the internet, the sheer volume of material means that they cannot always be said to be readily available. It seems not unreasonable that I should allow leave to be sought to table historic documents and media releases and reports from credible overseas publications or organisations. The websites on which they may be found will be much less familiar to members, and it is less likely that there will be reference to them in the New Zealand media or on websites that members commonly access. It is important that documents that members seek leave to table genuinely inform the proceedings of the House.

I remind members that seeking leave to table a document is not an opportunity for members to make statements to the House. Leave should not be sought to table members’ own views from websites, tweets, or blogs.