New Zealand First leader delivers fiery speech. Video / Parliament TV
New Zealand First’s Winston Peters has continued his criticisms of MPs reading out speeches in Parliament, while also denying one of his own MPs did just that last week.
“The very idea of oratory and getting up and being able to speak off the cuff never occurs to him as he says he has got a better Māori quantum than the rest of us,” Peters said.
“This is arrogance of the worst sort and he did it today. Can’t make a speech without a laptop.”
That came after Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris gave a speech assisted by a laptop in front of him. It was also picked up on by Speaker Gerry Brownlee, who said “reading speeches is not part of the tikanga of the House”.
Peters continued on Thursday, telling The Country MPs shouldn’t “read word for word”.
“You’re allowed to have notes, but it’s meant to be a debating chamber. A debating chamber suggests you are actually talking about something that is happening in your current environment.
“But they come down with notes written by their research unit with no heed at all to the need for debate. That is what the debating chamber is about, it is about debating the issues.”
Deputy Prime Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters attacking Te Pāti Māori in Parliament, on May 29, 2024. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Peters said training for politicians in the past included that they had “the ability to speak, get up, read the room, and speak properly”.
He said many of the new MPs didn’t have that training.
Later on Thursday, he denied one of his New Zealand First MPs, Tanya Unkovich, was one of those reading out their speeches.
Parliament TV footage of Unkovich’s contribution in last Wednesday’s general debate shows the first-term MP spending much of the speech holding up, looking at, and flicking through papers. The video does show Unkovich on occasion responding to interjections from the Opposition.
Following her speech, assistant Speaker Greg O’Connor, who was in the chair at the time, looked to Unkovich and said general debates were “a good time to make speeches”.
“We discourage reading. It’s a good time to start and speak from the heart,” he said.
When questioned by the Herald on Thursday, Peters said he had gone back and watched Unkovich’s speech and didn’t believe she had “read off the speech”.
“She bounced back at all sorts of interjections. She said a whole lot of things that weren’t on her speech and those are the facts,” Peters said.
“I am comfortable with the fact that it was a very lively speech for which she has got enormous public coverage.”
He said that differed to Ferris as he believed the Te Pāti Māori MP had read every word of his speech.
Peters later called Unkovich’s speech “one of the most daring speeches I have seen”.
The Speaker addressed the issue of reading speeches prior to Thursday’s Question Time starting. He said it had been the subject of a number of rulings over the years.
Brownlee said there were some circumstances where reading a speech “may be acceptable”, mentioning speeches including technical material, a maiden speech and a valedictory speech.
“All members are entitled to refer to notes, and some members may rely more heavily on them than others. The key thing is that members are giving their own speeches, rather than the remarks prepared for them. In any case, no member other than the Speaker may interrupt a member who is speaking to mention a breach of this convention.”
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.
