Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says it should be up to voters to judge the way politicians present themselves. Photo / VNP
By Lillian Hanly of RNZ
The Green Party is warning Gerry Brownlee he should take care to avoid becoming Parliament’s fashion police, but National and Labour are welcoming his attempt to address what they see as slipping standards in the House.
The Speaker, who acts as Parliament’s referee, on Tuesday announced plans to be stricter with standards, including those around leave, attendance and dress.
He gave Parliament a dressing down – specifically new Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara – after her maiden speech last week went over time and was followed by an unsanctioned haka. He delivered a ruling on the disruption caused as Parliament began sitting again on Tuesday afternoon.
Supplementary questions would now be entirely at his discretion, he would make more use of the punishments Parliament’s speaker can hand down to MPs and he would seek changes to rules around attendance, dress standards and leave, he said.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March said it should be up to voters to judge the way politicians present themselves.
“I do caution against any one Speaker trying to be the fashion police because we do have an intergenerational Parliament with several cultures and backgrounds and trying to conform to a very specific dress code will only diminish that representation.
“If voters don’t like how a party is presenting, they can punish us on election day,” he said.
Menéndez March said any changes to the rules would need to be clearly spelled out, and putting someone in a tuxedo was no guarantee of improved behaviour.
That politicians need to conform to “business attire” was already quite broad and open to interpretation, based on age, background and culture, he said.
But National Minister Simeon Brown told RNZ’s Morning Report he welcomed the Speaker looking into those issues, and it was the Speaker “doing his job”.
Brown believed removing the requirement to wear a tie reduced the standards across Parliament and “standards continue to slip”, leading to some of “the behaviour we’re seeing now”.
“This is the highest court in the land, MPs are elected to that position. It is a position of great responsibility,” Brown said.
He wanted standards that “make us turn up to work, to do our jobs and to represent our people, the people who put us there”.
Labour’s deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni said she was supportive of Brownlee’s decision because the public had an expectation of politicians to do their job well, but Brown was oversimplifying the issue.
She also told Morning Report she didn’t think there had been a decline in behaviour “because men are no longer required to wear ties”.
On attendance in the House, Sepuloni believed it was “fair and reasonable” to look into the issue. She said Labour had strict rules around attendance and there was a process to go through in order to take leave.
“The Labour Party, even within opposition, is very reluctant to vote down in numbers. We think that we need to be there in full force.”
Brown wouldn’t speak on whether Te Pāti Māori MPs were present enough in the House, but said he believed politicians were “elected to do a job, we should be turning up”.
He acknowledged there would be a debate around what the standards should be, “but there should be standards, and they should be enforced”.
Politicians were asked their thoughts on the issue as they headed into the House on Wednesday.
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said 10 years ago he would have said “what a fuddy duddy idea” to improve the dress code but looking at the way “behaviour has slipped just as the dress code slipped” it might be time for “Parliament to pull its socks up”.
On whether dress standards would make a difference to behaviour, Seymour pointed out if you didn’t do anything because you weren’t certain it would make a difference, “you’ll never do anything”.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters had thoughts about a press gallery journalist’s attire, suggesting it was “not bad, not a very good knot, bit slim, not enough colour”.
On a serious note, he said he hoped to see a return of the requirement to wear ties in the Debating Chamber.
“I’m hoping for a return of standards because Trevor Mallard collapsed the standards and look what the outcome is. It’s an absolute circus.”
He referenced Oriini Kaipara’s choice to “come into this House on their first day for their inaugural speech, barefooted”.
“What contempt for this place,” he said, adding that when Māori arrived at Parliament in 1868 “they had respect”.
“Not this crowd, and we’re going to turn that back.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said “things have gone backwards a bit”. While he wasn’t saying the tie should be brought back as a requirement, he noted he continued to wear one but everyone could make their own choice.
“I’d encourage everyone to have a bit of a think about that,” including members of the press gallery, he joked.
Asked about Kaipara being barefoot when she was sworn in, Hipkins said he did not know the details but it depended on the context.
Generally though, “this is a place of work, it’s serious work, and people should treat it accordingly”, he said. Labour MPs would not be allowed to be shoeless in the House, he clarified.
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said she had not been thinking about dress codes but wanted to see an ability for politicians to create their individuality.
On Kaipara’s decision not to wear shoes, she said she had empathy for the decision because “I myself find it really uncomfortable to wear shoes”.
“And because in Te Ao Māori, there is a time where it’s more appropriate to not wear our shoes, so I understand that.”
Defence Minister Judith Collins said she thought dress standards were “terrible, frankly” and that “bad behaviour tends to come with bad dress codes”.
“We are supposed to have business attire. I don’t know what business some of these people are in,” Collins said. As for bare feet in the House, “completely out of order”, she added.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said standards had dropped since Mallard, and it was “pretty sloppy” when you saw people with “jeans and sneakers and T-shirts”. Asked if that made Parliament more accessible, when people at home see politicians as normal people, Doocey said, “we’re all normal in our own unique way”.
But he said “we come to make the laws of the land” and he believed a stricter dress code would make a difference to behaviour in Parliament. Brownlee was Doocey’s teacher at school and “always held great standards for the students”.
“It’s a bit like that now with the classroom, he’s telling us to pull our socks up, put our ties on and look as though we’re here to run the country.”
Trade Minister Todd McClay said standards had slipped. He always wears a tie and considers his constituents, who might go to a restaurant or a nightclub or to work, “and there are always standards”.
– RNZ