Leaders pinch best seats in House

By FRANCESCA MOLD

So much for A to Z.

It was a case of "do as the boss says" at Parliament yesterday as MPs ditched the plan to sit in alphabetical order until a formal seating deal was worked out.

Party leaders who did not want to be seen sitting in the cheap seats turfed their underlings off the front benches so they could take their rightful seats on their first day back at work.

New National MP Don Brash moved out of the leader's spot to make way for Bill English.

New Zealand First's Peter Brown gave his front-row seat to Winston Peters.

United Future MP Larry Baldock vacated Helen Clark's seat and Jim Anderton moved over one place to let Michael Cullen take up the Deputy Prime Minister's spot.

United Future's deputy leader Gordon Copeland made way for his boss Peter Dunne.

The only leader to stay in his alphabetically allocated spot was Richard Prebble, who happily sat in the back row reading the paper, watching events unfold.

The only MP to change his seat mid-way through the formal Commission Opening of Parliament was Labour's Jonathan Hunt.

He began the day sitting on the backbenches.

But he was elected Parliament's Speaker and quickly moved to the best seat at the front of the House.

Mr Hunt's election came after the 117 MPs present were sworn-in.

Most (67) swore their oath of allegiance on the Bible, with 49 choosing to take an affirmation instead.

For the first time in Parliament's history, new Labour MP Ashraf Choudhary swore his oath on a plastic-wrapped Koran.

MPs Katherine Rich, Steve Chadwick and Nick Smith were absent.

There was a late challenge for the Speaker's job from Act's Ken Shirley but he managed to collect only nine votes from his own MPs.

It is traditional for the Speaker to pretend he doesn't want the job, because in the past he could have ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London if he didn't do what the King or Queen wanted.

Labour brought in its bovver boy Trevor Mallard and MPs Marian Hobbs and Rick Barker to carry out the pretence of dragging Mr Hunt to the Speaker's chair.

But they were not needed.

Mr Hunt's passage across the chamber was made at a such a fast trot that it looked like he was pulling his colleagues along in his eagerness.

There was plenty of back-slapping for the new Speaker. Party leaders praised Mr Hunt as a firm but fair chairman.

They also mentioned his fondness for evening soirees featuring prominent winemakers, which sparked a rare interjection from the Speaker himself that the events took place only outside sitting hours.

Mr Hunt said he wanted to put an end to speculation he would quit the job half way through the Parliamentary session to take up the High Commissioner's job in London.

He intended to stay Speaker until 2005, he said.

Yesterday's opening was one of the few times MPs seemed to get on with their opponents.

There were some rather strange chummy scenes. Former Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash shared a joke with Finance Minister Michael Cullen.

And outspoken National MP Maurice Williamson spent most of the time in deep conversation with everyone but his own party members, including the Labour front bench.

The friendliness is unlikely to last.

MPs will be back in the debating chamber today.

This time, they'll be slugging it out over the Government's plans for the next three years.

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