His language has been called unparliamentary. Video / Parliament TV
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has faced claims he’s contributing to lowering standards in Parliament by saying MPs should not “shout out like a sick idiot”.
He brushed those claims off, however, saying his use of a simile that wasn’t directed at anyone in particular meant he had acted appropriately.
The main flare-up happened following questions from the Greens’ Tamatha Paul to Children’s Minister Karen Chhour about the Government’s military-style academy programme. Chhour gave a fiery answer to one question, leading to loud interjections from the Opposition.
That loud jeering led Peters to raise a point of order and say: “Listen to that barrage. Could we suggest to you maybe we do a few courses on how it should be run and how MPs behave.
“If you want to compete, then put your mind together, get some understanding of it and not just shout out like a sick idiot every time you don’t agree with something.
“I have never seen the House like this in my time here. Back in a former time when it was a contest of ideas, we understood that, but these people are so woke, they don’t agree, they are just offended, and then they make noise.”
Speaker Gerry Brownlee said he wasn’t responsible for whom voters sent to the House, but voters would “have an expectation of a high level of decorum in our conducting of our proceedings”.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters in Parliament.
The Greens’ musterer Ricardo Menéndez March then stood with what he called “quite a serious issue”.
“There was some quite, what I thought, unparliamentary language, referring to members opposite to him, calling them quote, ‘sick idiots’. I think that is pretty, like, disgusting and I just want to raise with you what I think is the Deputy Prime Minister’s lowering of standards in this House.”
Peters responded by saying someone raising a point of order should “get the facts right first”.
“Don’t get up and say what someone didn’t say. Go and listen to the parliamentary record and the member will know for the umpteenth time he is not understanding of how this House is properly run.”
Brownlee said he would later check over a transcript of the proceedings to see if any rules had been breached.
Outside the House afterwards, Peters repeated that he had said “like a sick idiot” and he didn’t target it at any one member.
“I used a simile ... of course it is appropriate for the House because you are not actually talking about a particular person, you are talking about a manner of behaviour.”
Speaking again on Thursday, Peters said: “I have never seen a Parliament, when if they don’t agree with the answer, even the person who asked the question, is now shouting so they can’t hear the rest of the answer.”
“[Prime] is the worst of them, and why haven’t you called her out? Excuse me, when are you going to start doing your job?”
In response, Prime said she was acting appropriately.
“I am just there doing my job and he is constantly taking exception to it ... he knows exactly what he is doing”.
She wasn’t sure if standards in Parliament were dropping.
“It has always been pretty robust in there and different Speakers approach it in different ways, but I do think that we have a number of points of order being made that are not points of order and in those points of order there are a number of personal attacks being made.”
In September, Peters said Parliament was in a “state of decay” and took issue last month with a general debate contribution from Te Pāti Māori’s Tākuta Ferris that Peters believed suggested other MPs were “liars”. Ferris’ denial of that has led the issue to go before Parliament’s powerful Privileges Committee.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
