Labour MP Kieran McAnulty was kicked out of the House today. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty was ejected from the House today after alleging the Speaker of the House was employing a “double standard” while addressing a remark from Winston Peters, which Opposition MPs have claimed was “racist”.
McAnulty, standing to address Speaker Gerry Brownlee after fellow Labour colleague Willie Jackson was cautioned, was ordered to leave the House for repeatedly trifling with Brownlee.
Speaking outside the House, McAnulty stood by his belief Brownlee was using a double standard regarding the New Zealand First leader and reiterated Labour’s lack of confidence in Brownlee as the Speaker since December 2024.
The issue stems from Peters’ response yesterday to a question from Green MP Teanau Tuiono, which referenced New Zealand as Aotearoa, something Peters detests.
Peters stood and indicated it was not appropriate for someone who “comes from Rarotonga” to not use a name other than New Zealand.
As reported in Inside Politics by the Herald’s Audrey Young, Tuiono was born in Henderson and raised in Levin, Ōtāhuhu and Manurewa, and he spent a few years in the Cook Islands.
He is of Cook Islands descent on his father’s side, but from Atiu, not Rarotonga. On his mother’s side he is Ngāi Takoto, an iwi north of Kaitāia, and he speaks fluent Māori.
After the incident, Brownlee said he would review the matter.
Ahead of Question Time today, Green co-leader Chloe Swarbrick raised the issue again, questioning whether there was a double standard regarding the treatment of other MPs and Peters in a reference to her own ejection from the House after not apologising for claiming Government MPs didn’t have spines.
Jackson also spoke of how he felt highly offended by Peters’ remark towards Tuiono. He asked Brownlee to request Peters withdraw the comment and apologise, but Brownlee did not.
McAnulty, who is the Shadow Leader of the House, rose after Jackson with concerns about an alleged double standard.
McAnulty doubled down on his comments later in Question Time after Brownlee had warned Jackson for interjecting.
“The member is going to trifle with the chair if he carries on with that,” Brownlee said to McAnulty.
“I’m concerned that just by that statement, it’s quite clear that you’re saying that if I trifle with you again, that I will leave, but you won’t even require someone making a racist comment to withdraw and apologise,” McAnulty responded.
Brownlee then declared: “The member will leave the House.”
After protests from Labour MPs, Brownlee said the suggestion he was exercising a double standard was an “attack on the House” and threatened any MPs who made that claim would also be ejected.
Speaking after his ejection, McAnulty didn’t resile from his view.
“Winston Peters is able to trifle with [Brownlee], undermine him, make racist comments, make questionable comments, certainly unparliamentary comments and actions in the House, and there is no action against that.
“We challenged the Speaker today in a respectful and highly appropriate way and yet I’m the one that gets kicked out, proving my point, to be fair.”
In late 2024, Labour declared it had lost confidence in Brownlee as Speaker after he overruled advice of the Clerk of the House related to an amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill.
McAnulty said that remained the position of the party.
Peters said accusations he was making racist comments was “total humbug”.
Asked about the Labour Party complaints to the Speaker at the start of Question Time, Peters said he could see Labour’s “frustration”.
“They’re ineffective in the House. I have never seen a more incompetent Opposition when it comes to the use of Standing Orders and Speaker’s rulings.”
He denied not being reprimanded was a double standard considering the way Swarbrick was treated last year after her comment suggesting the Government didn’t have a “spine”.
“Chloe Swarbrick was told to apologise, and she wouldn’t, so she left that day. When she came back the next day, she was told to apologise again. The circumstances were utterly different.”
Peters said he had confidence in the Speaker.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.