KEY POINTS:
The 49th Parliament opened for business this morning amidst pomp and ceremony, but only moments into its first session the gloves were off as MPs reverted to attack mode.
The contrast between ceremony and reality was stark.
Governor-General Anand Satyanand was welcomed by the military, a kapa haka group and local Maori, before being greeted by one of Parliament's ceremonial figures - the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.
After inspecting members of the army, navy and airforce, he climbed the steps of Parliament House and took his station in Parliament's old upper house - the Legislative Council Chamber (LCC).
The Black Rod then fetched MPs from the House of Representatives, banging his rod three times on the door and delivering the Governor-General's command to the Speaker for them to come.
MPs filed into the LCC and took their seats to hear the Speech from the Throne. In line with tradition the aisles were chained off so they could not leave for the length of the detailed speech.
When MPs returned to the House, National Waikato MP Lindsay Tisch was elected Deputy Speaker, and National MP for Invercargill Eric Roy was chosen as an assistant along with Labour list MP Rick Barker.
Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee noted all three had been party whips which gave them tangible experience for the new roles.
He moved the government notices for the appointments and reinstatement of bills from the previous parliament - all of which are to be reported by June next year.
Shadow Leader of the House Michael Cullen started politely by congratulating Speaker Lockwood Smith on his appointment yesterday but then said Mr Roy would have made a better deputy than Mr Tisch because of his previous experience and that it was a shame there were no women chosen.
He hoped that could be remedied but stopped short of suggesting surgery and also made a dig about a small hand and a large hand assisting Dr Smith, who recently made unfortunate remarks, for which he apologised, about Asians being good fruit pickers because of the size of their hands.
Dr Cullen was also unhappy that a Labour MP did not get a deputy role.
He said that as of 8.30am the Government did not know what would be on its urgency list.
National's Tau Henare had had enough about then and called Dr Cullen a "smart arse" and said his time was over and he should leave.
ACT's Heather Roy and Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples congratulated the new Speaker officers, with Dr Sharples making a point of mentioning both their parties had signed a voluntary code of conduct.
This afternoon MPs are debating the Speech from the Throne which outlined Mr Key's vision for the next three years.
Delivered by Mr Satyanand, the speech said the Government would not interfere in decisions best made by families and communities and it would focus on economic growth given the international financial crisis.
He talked about National's planned tax cuts and a "step-up" in infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy and a "Re-Start" package of assistance to give transitional relief to those who lost their jobs.
- NZPA
