by Rachel Stewart

Let’s talk about co-leader of Te Pati Māori Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. She is the MP for Te Tai Hauāuru HOW AH OO ROO – a vast Māori electorate covering areas in Taranaki, Whanganui, Horowhenua, Manawatū, the Kāpiti Coast, and Porirua.

Given the endless political farce Te Pati Māori have been since the 2023 election, you’d think she’d have learned to pull her head in for the sake of their future survival, but no, you’d be wrong. Pulling her head in is not in her kete of tricks. Humility, long-term thinking, or decorum cannot be found at the bottom of her kete either.

Which is funny because she’s actually the administrative Whip for Te Pāti Māori, managing party discipline and house procedures in the debating chamber. Which, so far, is the equivalent of a panelbeater driving around in NZ’s most dented car.

Here’s what I know about her. Along with that other illustrious wahine from the Greens, Marama Davidson, she quite likes using the ‘C’ word – I know this because Packer called me the same word on Twitter once after I wrote a column in the NZ Herald on self-ID – before she used it in Parliament last week on the Assistant Speaker of the House while she was in the Speaker’s chair. And this alone, to be fair, has not predisposed me to her.

Now, I don’t and will not accept the argument that because the word has been used before in the House within an entirely different framework, somehow it’s okay to be used again. Why? Because I’m not a moron. ACT MP Brooke van Delden was raising the column in which journalist Andrea Vance freely used the word to criticise the coalition government's changes to pay equity legislation. The column described female Cabinet ministers who, in her opinion, were worthy of her using the c-word on. Nice.

It was a low point in NZ journalism, in left-wing commentary, and in disrespect shown towards Stuff’s own readers. I’d never seen anything like it, and I’ve been around a while. Brooke van Delden’s critique of the sordid affair was firmly strengthened by using the word in that context, and many – me included – found her speech moving. It’s a shame we are losing her at the next election, as I think she is what an actual decent woman looks like.

So with that out of the way, let’s look at what actually happened in Parliament and keep a close eye on the Speaker’s chair and how it was all handled.

Maureen Pugh delivered a masterclass in fairness and sticking to the point. She did not get flustered, or side-tracked, or equivocate. She dispatched Willie Jackson like the annoying midge that he was; every single point she made was procedural, and she even managed to apologise to Oriini Kaipara after taking her at her word. Pure House Speaker excellence. Gerry Brownlee should have that clip on repeat – like the All Blacks study their matches – and learn from it. He has been dire as a Speaker, and the sooner he’s out of it the better.

The whole sad debacle raises the scrutiny once again on a Parliament that is no longer treated with respect by our elected representatives. There must come a point when the bad behaviour by the people we are paying either means consequences for them, or we pack up and go home.

If we are forced to do the latter – and I feel it’s getting closer – then the system has effectively collapsed, and the lunatics are running the asylum. Are you getting that feeling too?

I’d also like a return to the good old days where you didn’t use Twitter or X or a newspaper column or Parliament to call someone a ‘grunt’; you just said it to their face. Anything else is just effectively contracting out your contempt. I don’t know, maybe if we had to suffer the consequences of saying such a thing to people’s faces, with blood up, all out and proud, then maybe having the courage of your convictions would simply end with a smack on the kisser. And that prospect alone has always served as a great moderating factor.

Oh, how I miss those far more honest and carefree days.

Listen to the full episode of Riding Shotgun.