Mike Houlahan: National gives Government the silent treatment

After the storm, the calm.

MPs, who last week exhibited all the restraint and decorum of sailors on shore leave, yesterday transformed themselves into Trappist monks.

Perhaps they were daunted by stern public disapproval of the raucous scenes during question time last week, or maybe the sober mood was engendered by moments of silence in memory of the Tongan King and the victims of 9/11, but MPs spent yesterday's session in studied silence.

Last week Prime Minister Helen Clark's retorts to National leader Don Brash's questions about election spending were drowned by a tidal wave of barracking. Yesterday, as the Prime Minister spoke, the loudest thing in the debating chamber was Ross Robertson's tartan scarf.

National, which last week laid itself open to accusations of orchestrated barracking, yesterday unveiled its new strategy for question time - the sound of silence. Minister's answers were heard in a hush which may not have been respectful but which certainly allowed full scope for National's plan, to allow ministers to hang themselves via the poor quality of their answers, to be played out.

MPs such as Dr Nick Smith and Judith Collins, who last week were baying for blood, sat puce with lips pursed as the Prime Minister, Steve Maharey, Annette King and Phil Goff took a succession of potshots at National.

Labour devoted its three questions to set pieces designed to highlight National's links with the Exclusive Brethren. These contained plenty of clever wordplay - notably Mr Goff's assertion that the "blatant lies" of the Exclusive Brethren violated the biblical injunction not to bear false witness - but even this endurance test failed to provoke an emotional response.

National's arch interjector, Tau Henare, confined himself to paperwork and the occasional raised eyebrow. His benchmate Sandra Goudie, the only MP to be ejected from the House during last week's tumult, finally squawked briefly into action after an hour, only to be stopped in her tracks by a stern glare from senior colleague Maurice Williamson.

The Greens were the unlikely icebreakers, with that party's attempts to save the Overlander rail service being run off the rails by Finance Minister Michael Cullen.

Sue Kedgley asked Dr Cullen if he had taken the train recently.

"No, I do not usually have 12 hours to travel from Auckland to Wellington, and the pleasure sounds like too much for my elderly soul to manage," Dr Cullen replied.

New Zealand First deputy leader Peter Brown highlighted the recent upsurge in trade on the Overlander and wondered if it might not encourage the Government to consider subsidising the service? Dr Cullen suggested people were getting in while the getting was good.

"That could lead to what one might call an 'Irish solution' of continuing to announce the closure of the route every so often in order to increase the patronage."