The most expensive creche in NZ

Most of you are not sad enough to read the transcripts of Parliamentary Question Time, and fair enough! But you have to read this exchange which shows your tax dollars at work:

Madam SPEAKER: There was an interjection. Would the member please withdraw and apologise without any other comment, so that we can proceed.

Gerry Brownlee: I most certainly will not.

Madam SPEAKER: Everyone is on a last warning. When an interjection is made while a question is being asked, that member is normally removed from the House. I now put everyone on a last warning.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Am I going to get an apology for Mr Brownlee’s remarks in respect of that so-called apology? He offended against the rule about not making any comment during the asking of a question. He has been on notice about that before. Then he compounded it with a so-called apology, which was not an apology at all. I am asking to be treated in the same way as the rest of us, and for him, regardless of his supposedly temporary position, to be told to apologise and withdraw.

Madam SPEAKER: I would ask the member to withdraw and apologise, please, without comment. [Interruption] You are not doing so? Right.

Rodney Hide: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I think we are in grave difficulty, because Mr Brownlee has told the House that all he did was smile. [Interruption] Laugh. Mr Peters can hardly take objection to that; we would have to withdraw and apology every time someone laughs in the House. That would become ridiculous, because the entire Opposition would be apologising right through question time.

Madam SPEAKER: Mr Brownlee said he laughed. I thought I heard an interjection; the laughter was extraordinarily loud if it actually got to that level. I want you all please to just settle. You are all on your last warning. You can be capable of being misinterpreted, if there are any loud interjections when members are asking questions. So, please, can we proceed, with Mr Peters just asking his question at this point.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. When you ask a member to apologise, he does; he does not refuse, in the way that Mr Brownlee just did. You asked him whether he was going to apologise, and he said “No”. If the answer is no, then he is out of the House.

Madam SPEAKER: Yes, there was an interjection. I have tried, in fact, to be reasonable on this. Mr Brownlee, will you please apologise so that we can proceed.

Rodney Hide: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. You actually have not established that it was Mr Brownlee who interjected. In fact, what you are insisting on is that Mr Brownlee apologise for laughing, and I say it is a pretty dark day in the House if that is cause for an apology. I think you might have the wrong person.

Madam SPEAKER: Would the member please be seated. He is only repeating himself, and there is also a ruling about not making persistent points of order. Whether or not it was laughter, I heard it as an interjection. In order to try to progress the business of the House, it seemed easier just to ask the member to apologise, rather than remove him, because I had not given the final warning for the day. He is refusing to apologise. I will ask him one more time. Would the member please apologise.

Gerry Brownlee: I apologise. I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. What have I just apologised for?

So there you have it, your elected representatives debating the things that matter to you!?!? It was actually quite funny. I would love to get Gerry and Winston, a bottle of Whiskey and flight of stairs together.

There is no question that Margaret Wilson is the worst Speaker in history - but I am actually starting to feel sorry for her.