New Zealand Parliamentary Debate

Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill [4470]

Rodney Hide

: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker-

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( Ann Hartley)

: Now we will hear the point of order. Mr Hide, I have finished with your point of order previously.

Rodney Hide

: You have not heard this one. During the points of order that were being taken, you growled at me, Madam Assistant Speaker, for talking to Mr Tau Henare and then to Tariana Turia through the point of order while you were speaking. But they were sitting beside me. Is it the ruling now that members cannot speak to a person sitting beside them during a point of order? Is that the new standard, because my understanding-

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( Ann Hartley)

: The member will be seated. The reason I called out to Mr Hide was that I was giving a ruling on a point of order-which is when he spoke-after I had already warned the other member.

Rodney Hide

: But-

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( Ann Hartley)

: No, the member will not continue. I have dealt with that point of order.

Rodney Hide

: Well, you haven't.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( Ann Hartley)

: I will just warn the member. His bill is coming up; I do not want to send him out. I just ask him to show some respect to the House.

Lindsay Tisch

: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I think this can be brought to a conclusion just by asking the member whether he took offence. If he took offence, then I am sure Mr Woolerton will apologise for that, and we can move on. It is very clear under Standing Orders 115 and 116, which I mentioned before, that the question you should ask of Mr Flavell, Madam Assistant Speaker, is whether he took offence. If the answer is yes, then I suggest you ask Mr Woolerton to apologise so we can move on. If he did not take offence, then there is no issue and we should move on.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( Ann Hartley)

: Thank you, Mr Tisch. I have already asked the member that and, certainly, he has indicated that he did take offence. I have dealt with that, as I said to Mr Woolerton. Mr Woolerton was just in the process of standing up to continue his speech and indicate how he saw the matter.

R DOUG WOOLERTON

: Indeed I was. I was just going to say I am sorry if anybody took offence at my pronunciation. I apologise for that. In fact, very often people say I do not even pronounce my own name properly, and often people think I am of Australian extraction. Unfortunately I do not pronounce some words properly but, as my colleague Brian Donnelly said, if Te Ururoa Flavell allowed us to use his nickname Jimbo, I might be much better off.

But I was in the process-I have almost forgotten now-of saying that it is unfortunate if every time we seek to make a small change to anything around the Treaty, either we are accused of being racist or our intentions are misinterpreted. It saddens me that that is the case, because what we have been accused of is certainly not our intention in this bill. The intention in this bill is to make things clearer-

Hon Maurice Williamson

: This member should have been a Minister.

R DOUG WOOLERTON

: Absolutely! The intention is to make things clearer where the law mentions the Treaty of Waitangi, and to give clarity to the law. I am in no way offended when Mr Finlayson of the National Party says that the bill in my name needs a bit of tidying up. He has undertaken-

Hon Tau Henare

: Needs a bit! You need to rewrite it!

R DOUG WOOLERTON

: I am pleased that Mr Finlayson is a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee, because the task would be way, way beyond the capabilities of Mr Tau Henare if we were unfortunate enough to have him in that select committee. I have total confidence that Mr Finlayson will be able to tidy up the bill in