Speaking to reporters outside the debating chamber, Swarbrick said the comment itself was “pretty mild” compared to other remarks that had been made in the chamber previously and the context “of the war crimes that are currently unfolding”.
Asked outside the House if the Government was “spineless”, she said: “I think the facts speak for themselves.”
Swarbrick said New Zealanders “just want something to be done”.
“I have stood at rallies for two years now and spoken to New Zealanders from all walks of life who desperately want our Parliament to get on with it.”
After Swarbrick had left the House, Green Party whip Ricardo Menéndez March queried the harshness of the punishment, saying he believed she should have only been booted out for a day – not the rest of the week.
Brownlee said Swarbrick would be allowed to return to the debating chamber tomorrow if she withdrew and apologised for the comment.
“If she doesn’t, then she’ll be leaving the House again,” he said.
“I’m not going to sit in this chair and tolerate a member standing on her feet ... and saying that other members of this House are spineless.”
Swarbrick attacks ‘ridiculous ruling’
Swarbrick said her party would see if they could get Brownlee to reflect on “what I think was kind of a ridiculous ruling”.
A reporter pointed out to Swarbrick that she seemed more exasperated than normal when speaking about this particular topic.
She said: “Guys, I’m tired. I’m angry. Human beings, your colleagues, journalists are being massacred. What the hell is the point of everything that we do ... if people in my place don’t do their job?
“... if we allow other human beings to be just mercilessly slaughtered, to be shot while waiting for food aid. What hope is there for humanity?”
Seymour questions Swarbrick’s scarf
Earlier in the afternoon, during Parliament’s Question Time, Act leader David Seymour asked the Speaker to consider whether a “Palestinian scarf” or keffiyeh that Swarbrick had draped over her seat was appropriate.
“If everybody who had an interest in a global conflict started adorning their seat with symbols of one side or the other of a conflict, I think that would bring the House into disrepute,” Seymour said.
As Seymour stressed to the Speaker that his own party had been told to not wear the lapel pins, Simon Court, who was sitting behind Seymour, could be seen frantically removing his pin.
Swarbrick took the scarf off the back of her seat and put it around her shoulders, which was acceptable to the Speaker, who quipped: “Good okay, well stay warm.”
