The first debate of the new Parliament had NZ First Winston Peters back in full cry, Christopher Luxon in a triumphant mood - and Te Pāti Māori and the Greens in a defiant mood and more than ready to return fire.
It’s not often a brand new MP can wipethe floor with the veterans of Parliament, but it was new National MP James Meager who delivered the best speech of the day by some margin as the new Parliament kicked off.
Meager delivered a maiden speech that was personal, brave and moving, and tied his own background in well with his own political beliefs now. It was a reminder of what a maiden speech should be, rather than the roll call of thanks and reading of a party manifesto that some tend to be.
It will be a hard act to follow for the rest of the new MPs, and also proved a hard act to follow for the party leaders as they took to the microphones in the debating chamber again.
National MP for Rangitata James Meager during his maiden speech in Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The dramatically changed pantheon of political friends and foes in the new Parliament was highlighted most in NZ First leader Winston Peters’ speech.
Peters embarked on the roll call of his usual foes. In order, they were: political commentators, Te Pāti Māori, Rawiri Waititi (his cowboy hat showed “pretension”), some but not all media (who “marginalised and Cinderallised” poor Peters, thereby depriving him of a much larger caucus), the Serious Fraud Office, the media, Labour, the Greens (a pack of losers, apparently) and then Te Pāti Māori again at great length and with return fire.
However, a few of Peters’ usual foes had dropped off his list: the National Party and the Act Party leader David Seymour.
Instead, the National Party leader and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was sitting beside him, gazing up in concentration and admiration.
Luxon was presumably trying to judge when it was safe to laugh and when he needed to remain deadpan.
Winston Peters enjoys watching PM Christopher Luxon ribbing Labour about their election defeat. Photo / Mark Mitchell
It was clearly not an easy job for him. At one point Peters spoke about those foolish media who had written off NZ First’s chances. He ended with a triumphant “guess what? NZ First is back!.” Luxon laughed and clapped in delight, clearly forgetting he himself had written off NZ First’s chances for quite a lot longer than most media had – and then had done his utmost to write off Peters’ chances again by urging people to vote so he did not need Peters.
The shorter list of foes clearly left Peters with a shortage of material to speak about. He sat down after using just 15 minutes of his allocated 30 minutes and ate a chocolate bar to recover.
At times, the debate was a bit like rewatching the whole election campaign on fast forward.
Luxon delivered a mix of his old slogans about getting New Zealand back on track, National’s policy favourites and a rant about how little Labour had done in its six years.
There was also the inevitable triumphalism: Luxon spent a fair bit of time dwelling on the changed seating arrangement in Parliament since the election, which had landed him in the Prime Minister’s chair –with NZ First leader Winston Peters beside him.
That was followed rapidly by the fun of rubbing Labour’s nose in the mess of their defeat. Some of the latter was a bit funny. Luxon noted Labour was more than 30 seats down compared with the last term. “They’ll be asking how they went from 65 MPs to the 32 uncomfortable people sitting over there with survivor’s guilt. That’s what I see.”
There was an extended metaphor about Hipkins being an arsonist and a feigned show of “being supportive” by telling Labour where they went wrong. “Who wrote this rubbish?” Hipkins asked.
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins speaks in the Parliamentary debate. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Hipkins had gone first and had his own fun, mocking the run-around Winston Peters had put Luxon through during coalition negotiations and picking at the controversies in the Government’s start (smokefree laws). Then he moved to the pieces of the coalition agreements that Act or NZ First might discover they did not like. There was Act’s gain on the Overseas Investment Act, to which NZ First MP Shane Jones hollered “details, details.” Jones knows full well that “details” have led Winston Peters to bring down a government in the past.
Act leader David Seymour by and large stuck to his script, having a go at the others for a lack of intellectualism because of the resistance to Act’s move toward a referendum on the Treaty principles.
Both Seymour and Peters did highlight the biggest change in Parliament: all of the smaller parties now have sizeable caucuses. That meant there was a lot of heckling with backup and a few pūkana.
Te Pāti Maori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has spent much of this week squaring off against Shane Jones over the moves in the coalition agreements that affect Maori. Jones has criticised Te Pāti Māori for organising a protest on Tuesday and for pledging their allegiance to King “Harehare” with its double meaning of Charles and rash.
In her speech, she put in a plea to Luxon, saying he was a decent man and urged him to “take balanced counsel” on things impacting on Māori rather than simply the counsel of Peters and Seymour.
Ngarewa-Packer has been quick to make it clear to Jones that she will not let him get away with any nonsense. In her speech, she noted that protest was a warning shot across the bows of the new government – a show of just how quickly Māori would come to the front of Parliament to protest if the Government took things too far.
The heckling for NZ First was largely left to Jones, who’s clearly a bit rusty on it and sounded a bit like the squawking native parrot he has previously accused Ngarewa-Packer of being. “Oil and gas!” he hollered periodically. And “Harehare” when Ngarewa-Packer was talking.
“Go back to sleep, Uncle,” Green MP Chloe Swarbrick suggested. Good idea all round.
