Newly independent MPs, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris, correct votes to support David Seymour’s medicines bill

Expelled Te Pāti Māori MPs Tākuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Ousted Te Pāti Māori MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris have had to correct a mistake they made in the House, changing a vote they cast against a bill to one in favour.

Last week, the MPs cast votes against the Medicines Amendment Bill at its third reading. Those votes were the only two against the bill, with every other party, including Te Pāti Māori, voting in favour of it.

The bill, in the name of Deputy Prime Minister and sometime Te Pāti Māori nemesis, David Seymour, enables the “Rule of Two”, allowing medicines to be approved within 30 days if the product has approval from two recognised overseas jurisdictions, among other changes.

Kapa-Kingi and Ferris were expelled from Te Pāti Māori last week. The fact they cast votes against their former party is significant as it could be used as evidence the two MPs were disrupting the proportionality of Parliament, the threshold that needs to be met for Te Pāti Māori to use the waka jumping law to boot the MPs from Parliament and trigger byelections.

The Green Party has been casting proxy votes on behalf of Kapa-Kingi and Ferris when they are not present in the debating chamber, which is normal practice for small parties or independents.

Last week, the Greens cast two proxy votes for Kapa-Kingi and Ferris against the bill. Kapa-Kingi was contacted for comment.

On Tuesday, before question time, Kapa-Kingi sought leave to have her vote switched to one cast in favour of the bill.

“I seek leave to correct a vote which was mistakenly given on my behalf on the Medicines Amendment Bill third reading,” Kapa-Kingi said.

“My vote on the Medicines Amendment Bill third reading was given as one against. It should have been one in favour.”

Ferris got to his feet and sought leave to correct his own vote.

Both MPs were successful and the Hansard on the Medicines Bill, now an act, shows it passed with the support of the whole House.

The Green Party’s musterer (whip) Ricardo Menéndez March disputed Kapa-Kingi’s characterisation of the vote as a “mistake”.

He said the Greens asked the MPs how they wanted their proxy votes cast and then cast the votes in accordance with their wishes.

“We cast the votes per the information we received from the two independent MPs, which was that they were voting against it.

“The facts are that we voted according to the information that was given to us. MPs are more than welcome to correct their votes but it is simply not factually correct to say we mistakenly cast it,” he said.

NZ First MP Winston Peters raised a point of order about the correction in the House.

Menéndez March said casting proxy votes for independent MPs had “happened for decades” and he did not think Peters or other MPs should be making an issue of it.