Speaker’s Rulings — Tabling of Documents—Procedure

Last Thursday Metiria Turei raised a point of order seeking my advice on the procedure for seeking leave to table a document. To assist members, I have given this further consideration and I have also examined the rulings of previous Speakers. What I will require of members when seeking leave to table a document are three things, and that the members identify these three things in this order: the source of the document, when it was published or produced, and to very succinctly inform the House of its nature. This way an informed decision can be made by members as to whether the document should in fact be tabled.

Seeking leave to table a document is not an opportunity to make a political statement that a member wishes to be heard. It is intended for placing before the House material that informs members of matters that are not otherwise readily available to them. Briefly describing for the House the nature of the document is not an opportunity to quote passages from it. If members persist in doing so, the leave will not be put to the House.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. That is a considered ruling and I understand the point you are raising. The only challenge for members in describing the document is that I think there must be some necessity to explain the relevance for tabling a document at that point. Otherwise, we can get into a situation where members can be seeking to table all sorts of things, and part of the narrowing-down of the rules around tabling is to prevent that from happening. So although the description does need to be succinct, it also needs to relate the nature of the document to the question or the speech in question, otherwise it is simply a pointless exercise.

I think my ruling is very clear. There is an opportunity to succinctly describe the nature of the document, and on various occasions that will require more depth than on other occasions. But I repeat the point that it is not the opportunity for members to make a political statement, which I see it being used for on many occasions. If I sense that that is the purpose of the member who is seeking to table the document, it is likely that the leave will not be put in the first place.