I was astounded to hear speaker Brownlee say at the start of Question Time today that he and Speakers before him had a duty to protect the smaller parties in Parliament.
Then he went on to say that on Tuesday after Question Time there would be an OPEN DEBATE on the decision and that every Member Of Parliament will have the opportunity to speak (more than once) in this debate and to propose amendments to the decision.
Don’t believe me then listen to the first few minutes of this link.
(There are two excerpts of Brownlee in the above and they are the most relevant in the link plus an interesting quote from Rawiri Waititi for The Hui programme. Then it moves to other matters.)
What the hell does Speaker Brownlee think he is doing. This debate could be dragged out for hours if not days and even be used to sabotage the delivery/presentation of the budget due on Thursday 22 May at 2pm.
The Maori Party people before the Privileges Committee had plenty of time and opportunity to put their case to the Committee and defend their actions. Not only did they choose not to but they blatantly snubbed and ridiculed the whole Committee process. Then they, Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer, later allegedly leaked confidential documents – it would be drawing a long bow to say they did not have a hand in that leak.
Former Speaker David Carter was interviewed by Heather du Plessis Allan and he was of the view that the Privileges Committee could have come down much harder on the 3 people before them. Here is his interview:
I am very concerned at the approach Speaker Brownlee is taking and until now I have been a supporter of the `casual way’ he has been running the chamber but in this instance he appears to have gone off the rails.
What do you think?
No Minister 
My view is that on Brownlee’s watch parliament has degenerated to its lowest ebb and that’s how he’ll be remembered.