Wednesday, November 03, 2004
I never thought I would say it
But thank you to Peter Dunne. Those of you sad enough to watch, or read the transcripts from, Parliamentary Question Time (whilst clearly needing to consider your levels of self loathing) will be very fimiliar with the following phrase - "Point of Order, Mr Speaker".
Question time is utterly littered with this interuption - typically followed by following response from the Speaker, "The Minister did address the question". Then another, "Point of Order, Mr Speaker", swiftly followed by - "I am not hear to judge the quality of the answer, it may not satisfy the member, but the Minister did address the question".
This banal to'ing and fro'ing goes on day after day. But you do have to have some sympathy for the Opposition (regardless of who is in power) - with the current Standing Orders, a Minister can say just about anything and get away with it.
Well, Peter Dunne has finally worded a Point of Order that will hopefully lead to that entire Standing Order being reviewed - this from Question Time yesterday:
Ron Mark: Does the Minister not remember receiving this letter of 29 September 2002 from a southern communications centre officer, addressed to him, where the officer pointed out a further problem, that being: “I have logged on seven highway patrols working from the Rangiora base, and our instruction is that they are not to attend any events, including traffic accidents.”, and if he does remember receiving that letter and reading it, can he tell us what he has done to ensure that strategic traffic units, highway patrols, excess blood/alcohol units, are all available for general duties call-outs such as the two that we have heard of, most disastrously, in the papers of late?
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: All staff who are on patrol are available to attend—
Ron Mark: They are not.
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: They are, and of course one letter from one disillusioned constable does not say what police policy is all about, but Mr Mark might believe anyone. He probably believes in Santa Claus!
Ron Mark: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: No, no, the member is going to stand, withdraw, and apologise.
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS: I withdraw and apologise.
Hon Peter Dunne: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I raise this point of order in respect of the ruling that you made regarding my colleague Marc Alexander’s supplementary question. You have long ruled that Ministers are required to address questions, and that you are not responsible for the quality or content of the answer. I think you may have made, as it is, a rod for your own back in that regard. But leaving that aside, in this instance your ruling was that my colleague’s specific question was one of a number of questions contained within the question that had been put to the Minister, and that essentially the Minister was not obliged to address any of them in responding. Now I think that actually takes the ruling to an extent that makes it a somewhat pointless exercise if addressing a question means that, in fact, someone merely has to get up and utter some words.
Mr SPEAKER: I think the member, who usually always raises a point of order when it is valid, has made a very interesting point. I want to give that some consideration, and I will come back with an answer.
Hopefully Hunt sends this to the Standing Orders Comittee at the very least.
Nice work Peter.
