Dress code standoff: Māori Party MP kicked out by Speaker over no tie. Video / Mark Mitchell
It was the first day back at Parliament, and Speaker Trevor Mallard started it by handing out a yellow card.
The yellow card was to Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, who had turned up to Parliament wearing a stone hei tiki taonga about his neck instead of a cloth necktie.
This was, the Speaker said, a breach of his ruling over summer that male MPs had to wear neckties.
Waititi argued that Mallard had allowed for cultural attire and he was dressed in Māori business attire – a suit with a taonga instead of a tie.
Mallard was not convinced - and afterwards, Waititi got little sympathy from his fellow MPs.
Labour's Willie Jackson and Act's David Seymour suggested he would do better to focus on larger matters than a necktie. However, Waititi does have a point.
Green MP Ricardo Menendez-March wears a Mexican bolo. Former United Future leader Peter Dunne was allowed to wear his bow tie.
Waititi's taonga was in the same place as a tie, and has significantly more meaning than a bow tie.
Things moved on. The first Question Time was something of a "bugger the forecasters" roundup.
Forecast after forecast about the impact of Covid-19 has proved to be incorrect.
Unemployment and the impact on the books were all a lot rosier than expected in last year's Budget.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson was more than happy to boast about the books looking a lot better than forecast, after today's Budget Policy Statement showed the books were $60 billion better off than anticipated in the 2021 Budget. He was also happy to crow about taking the photograph that adorned the cover of that Budget Policy Statement.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson shows off the photo he took over summer, which was used for the Budget Policy Statement. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Things got a little hairier for him when he was asked about the Reserve Bank's 2020 warning that monetary easing would have the effect of spiking property prices unless mitigating measures were taken.
Robertson started his dance of the forecasts, pointed out that warning was before Covid-19 came along. After Covid-19 came along and the Reserve Bank deployed monetary easing, it had changed its mind about the likely effect on the property market.
Alas, its first pre-Covid forecast turned out to be the accurate one. Instead of house prices dropping by 9 per cent, the opposite had happened.
Robertson assured everyone help was now on the way: trust him, he is the Government.
Then came Act leader David Seymour's interrogation of the PM about how her buzzwords of "transformational change" in 2020 compared to "foundational change" in 2021.
Seymour wanted to know whether soaring gang member numbers and declining student achievement were of the "transformational" or "foundational" variety of change.
Ardern took the tried and tested path of blaming other people.
She blamed Australia for the gang member numbers, noting it was a result of the controversial deportations policy. She blamed the former National Government for the school achievement figures.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins kindly pointed out to her that the school children in question had spent most of their primary years under National's National Standards programme, which was intended to raise student achievement.
It ended where it began: with Waititi's tie. When Waititi stood to ask Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis about the Waikeria prison riots, Mallard sat him down, saying he could not speak until he got the appropriate tie.
When Waititi stood again, Mallard booted him out.
National's attempt to boot Mallard out for good ended the show: Shadow Leader of the House Chris Bishop stood to try to move a no-confidence motion in Mallard, which National lodged after a taxpayer-funded settlement over Mallard's incorrect claims a former Parliamentary staffer's actions amounted to rape.
Hipkins came to Mallard's rescue too: he was quick to issue the one "No" that is required to block the leave.
Like Waititi, National will try their luck again on Wednesday.
Unlike National, Waititi actually has a chance of succeeding in his Mallard mission.
