These puppet strings don't pull themselves
You're thinking thoughts from someone else
How much time do you think you have?
Are you prepared for what comes next?
The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing party.
It’s kind of like children’s sports when one of the teams has to provide the referee. It doesn’t matter how careful or honest the parent with the whistle is there is always the perception of bias.
Or perhaps, think about being the parent running things on the sideline. You repeatedly try to get the attention of the referee, to make a substitution, but they’re busy providing coaching to the other team. So you decide bugger it and just go ahead and make the change. Heck, you tried to distract them multiple times, enough is enough.
Some of you are ahead of me here…
That’s kind of what happened on Wednesday night in parliament when Julie Anne Genter (JAG) got fed up trying to convey information and physically walked a booklet over to Matt Doocey with the helpful suggestion that he might like to read it.
“What is wrong with you?”, she yelled at him in exasperation. She could have yelled it from her seat, but he wouldn’t have heard.
Look, I’m not suggesting it was appropriate, but can we keep a little perspective? It wasn’t the assault that National and ACT MPs are claiming, in fact initially they laughed. Presumably before deciding this was an opportunity to score some points.
National whip Scott Simpson simpered that he’d never seen anything like it.
Should JAG have done it? Absolutely not.
Do we want MPs crossing the floor like that and waving information about? Nope.
Are the same people now frothing at the mouth at how terrible this is quite comfortable with the presence of their colleague Sam “Bed Leg” Uffindell? Yep.
Does that seem a bit hypocritical and suggest this mock outrage is simply for show? That Matt Doocey isn’t such a big girl’s blouse that he needs pamphlet protection in parliament after all? Oh hell yes.
Are you supposed to still say “big girl’s blouse” these days? Hmm, I don’t know, it doesn’t seem very woke does it? Would it be helpful if I said Christopher Luxon wears big boy shorts?
No that would be ridiculous, it’s not even true.
Isn’t it though?
Ha ha, very funny. Now can we get on with this newsletter?
Sure, but can I just add, I don’t know what his daughter’s looking so happy about. There’s only four pieces of french toast and that greedy bugger’s taken two for himself. Mind you I guess that means we are seeing the real him in public.
Anyway, back to more important matters than toast…
If you’d like a better understanding of the discussion that lead to the incident you might like to check out this excellent article from The Standard - In defence of Julie Anne Genter.
JAG apologised that evening saying, “It was the last thing I wanted to do, to intimidate anyone in this House. What has absolutely motivated me is a desire to share information that I believe would be of benefit to everyone in this House, and I'm very sorry if in my passion to do so I was intimidating. That was not my intention.”
Yesterday Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said, “This is obviously unacceptable behaviour and we've been really clear with Julie Anne about that as well. That's why we are following a disciplinary action.”
As you might imagine the comments on my page were a little more meh than outraged.
Annelies: “I love her for doing it! You go girl!! Enough is enough and I totally understand her frustration.”
Todd: “Sounds like he needs to put on his gender-affirming big-boy pants and get tf over it.”
Betsy: “What also pissed me off was the way RNZ today amplified the language each time the story was read. Pamphlet .. grew to a book! Strode .. became attack!
It was as if some unseen force was substituting more emotive language each hour, to make it sound like someone in the House was bashed with a bed leg... Uffindell wasn't anywhere near the pamphlet waving.”
JAG’s apology was not enough for some though, with multiple complaints being laid. This weekend Gerry, our referee, will decide on the appropriate course of action.
Let’s hope he’s a little less partisan than he was earlier in the week. On Tuesday he basically shrugged his shoulders and decided that nobody, least of him, wanted to upset Grumpy Uncle, so he’d just ignore the rules for him. Peters making more than one Point of Order that was nothing of the sort and simply a loosely related speech that Gerry should have called a stop to.
It was right that Julie Anne apologised but by way of contrast which of the following do you think is worse?
Shaking a pamphlet about, in an air disrupting manner, as inappropriate as it certainly was?
Or giving the middle finger to the former Foreign Minister of Australia, Bob Carr? As Winston Peters did on the radio yesterday morning, following the suggestion that he might ditch the nuclear free policy for our “friends”?
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