Light slap for second-hand insult

MPs can't directly call each other quislings or traitors, but they can get away with saying that someone else said it - after a surprise ruling in Parliament yesterday.

Act MP Gerry Eckhoff called Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton a quisling, then refused to apologise, claiming it was what others had told him and that it was true. Somehow he escaped being ordered to leave the House.

It is rare for an MP who disobeyed the Speaker by refusing to withdraw and apologise for an offensive remark not to be ordered from the House.

Mr Eckhoff used the offending word when repeating what he had been told during meetings with farmers about the Government's policy to regulate public access through private land to waterways.

He said people at the meetings had called Mr Sutton a "quisling" or traitor.

Quisling is one of the many insulting terms MPs cannot call each other in Parliament. The terms are determined by the Speaker or the person chairing proceedings.

On Tuesday "shag" was ruled offensive, and other banned words include hypocritical, gangster, buffoon, weasel, Nazi, gutless, two-faced and crappy.

After saying Mr Sutton was a quisling, Mr Eckhoff was repeatedly asked by Acting Speaker Clem Simich, to withdraw the remark and apologise.

But Mr Eckhoff said he could not as he was speaking the truth.

"I am merely repeating, sir, what heartland New Zealand has said. I did not refer to the minister as a quisling, I am merely referring to what is being said elsewhere."

Mr Simich said it was not a matter of whether it was the truth, it was about what was offensive in the House.

When Mr Eckhoff continued to refuse to apologise, Mr Simich punished him by ending his five-minute speech prematurely.

Usually he would have been ordered to leave the chamber or, more seriously, "named", which means the MP is suspended from the House.

Mr Simich later told the Herald because Mr Eckhoff was repeating what had been said to him outside the House, it was sufficient punishment to merely terminate his speech.

HISTORY LESSONS

Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945) was the leader of the Norwegian Fascist Party who aided the Nazi invasion of Norway.

In 1945, Quisling was shot for betraying his country. His name has become a generic term for a traitor.