KEY POINTS:
Opposition MPs yelled in Parliament yesterday, "Name the day, name the day," challenging the Prime Minister to announce the election date if Labour was so confident it had turned the corner and had National on the run over the Secret Taping of Secret Agendas at the Cocktail Party Affair.
Not surprisingly, Helen Clark was unwilling to oblige. She was not about to blow Labour's tactical advantage by divulging the date. But for the retiring Speaker, Margaret Wilson, election day probably cannot roll around soon enough.
"You're turning this place into a farce," she angrily interrupted at one stage as Winston Peters and Rodney Hide engaged in their now-daily exchange of insults over big business donations to the NZ First party's coffers.
Indeed, much of question time was farcical as Opposition MPs turned every question into a statement attacking the Government while ministers struck back by repeatedly reading out the transcripts of what two senior National MPs had been caught on tape saying at last Friday's cocktail party before their party's annual conference.
It turned out to be an afternoon of slipping standards - and not just in terms of how ministers answered questions.
While the House does not yet have that end-of-term feeling - it is unlikely to rise for the election until late next month - Parliament moved into the twilight zone with yesterday's final confidence vote of the three-year term.
Only Jim Anderton seemed immune to the election fever consequently sweeping through the House. His replies to questions offered something informative, rather than making only a fleeting reference to what he was being asked about.
The unwillingness of his Cabinet colleagues to do likewise finally saw the Speaker's patience run out. She twice demanded Health Minister David Cunliffe make more of an effort to answer the question he had actually been asked.
Hide and Peters were also grappling with ministerial responsibility, but for a different reason. Political donations are a party matter which does not fall within the purview of Peters' foreign affairs, racing and senior citizens portfolios.
To get around this constraint, Hide had to ask his questions within the context of what action Peters had been taking as Foreign Minister to ensure Governments in the Pacific region were honest, transparent and accountability.
It was a struggle for Hide to keep within standing orders. Likewise Peters with his replies. The Speaker reprimanded the pair for treating Parliament like a circus - an apt simile given Rodney Hide's ghastly ringmaster-style (and now infamous) yellow jacket.
Safely installed in one of his trademark dark double-breasted suits, Peters, among other things, ridiculed Hide for "impersonating a canary" and made reference to the need for sartorial standards.
However, the biggest threat to parliamentary standards was posed by the Greens' Sue Bradford. She twice raised the case of a beneficiary who had allegedly been told to "f ... off" by a Work and Income case manager. The first time a weary Wilson said she would "look at the matter" after United Future's Peter Dunne objected to the use of such language, saying it was unacceptable even if Bradford was quoting someone else.
By the time Bradford spoke again in the following general debate, Assistant Speaker Ross Robertson was in the chair. No sooner had she loudly uttered the offending word than he was on his feet demanding she apologise for using such a "profanity" in the House.
Bradford complained that Wilson had yet to rule. But Robertson was unmoved. He had made his own ruling on the matter and that was that.
