National's Carlos Cheung took issue with comments from Labour's Helen White. Photo / Parliament TV
Politicians have been warned about bringing their opponents’ families into debates after National’s Carlos Cheung took issue with Labour’s Helen White mentioning his children while discussing emissions.
Cheung’s complaint was initially dismissed, with Greg O’Connor, in the Speaker’s chair, calling the interjection “frivolous” and suggesting he be less sensitive.
But O’Connor later changed his approach, acknowledging the National MP had been “genuinely distressed”.
The House was in urgency, debating changes to the Clean Car Standard, on Thursday morning. White was speaking about emissions in urban areas, like her Mt Albert electorate and Cheung’s Mt Roskill.
At one point early on in her speech, White said there was a motorway that ran through the local suburb of Wesley.
“They are being impacted by the emissions from those very vehicles. Their kids will die as a result. I am not overstating this. I need to be able to make this point,” the Labour MP said.
“The children in that area will die at a greater rate because of the emissions from those utes.”
She was referencing comments by National’s Northland MP Grant McCallum, who had just told the House that New Zealanders “love their utes”.
“We need to be able to have our utes so we can drive up to Northland, the electorate that is miles above the rest, over the Brynderwyn Hills, and do it in an affordable manner.”
White said removing petrol and diesel vehicles from the fleet would impact the wellbeing and health of children.
The Labour MP said this might not be an issue in electorates like Northland, which she said had less dense populations.
“But in intensified cities. Remember, that Carlos Cheung and my area, they are going to take the majority of new people coming to Auckland because we are building in a different way and we are building more intensely,” she said.
“As we do that, it’s incredibly important that for the sake of Carlos Cheung’s children, for the sake of hopefully my grandchildren, that we clean up the air.”
Cheung interjected with a point of order: “I accept the other member can attack me. But I don’t think she should be using my children as an example in the speech.”
O’Connor, however, responded: “Sit down, Mr Cheung”.
“Mr Cheung, this is a robust discussion and I have heard you being quite vocal in it. Give and take, and just a little bit of sensitivity... or little bit less sensitivity,” he said.
But as he asked White to continue, Cheung stood again. O’Connor wasn’t having it.
“Sorry, Mr Cheung, this is a frivolous interjection and I am treating it as such, particularly for someone who has been making some considerable noise across the House.”
Mark Mitchell, the Police Minister and senior National MP, then made an intervention.
“I do take your point, Mr Speaker, but there is a long-held convention in the House that we do not introduce our families or family members into the debate,” he said.
O’Connor said he took the reference to Cheung’s children as a “broad enough mention” and told White to carry on but “be aware of the sensitivities of the House.”
White said she would be aware and continued her contribution.
She said her point was that children in the MPs’ electorates and across the country had high rates of asthma “and it’s incredibly important that we work on air quality”.
At the end of White’s speech, O’Connor said he had been reflecting on the previous interaction.
“I accept, Mr Cheung, that clearly you felt you had been impugned or your family had been impugned.”
He said this reinforced that the politicians did need to “keep family out of this”.
“Some of this is in the eye of the beholder, I realise that. Just a general warning, we do keep families out of our debate here. I accept you were genuinely distressed at that comment.”
The Government announced on Monday it would push through urgent changes to the Clean Car Standard.
It was introduced in 2023 and imposes annual CO₂ targets for vehicle importers, who must balance higher-emitting models with enough low-emission vehicles to meet their overall target.
However, the Government said with a shortage of cleaner used vehicles and lower demand for electric vehicles, importers were unable to meet targets. That is leading to them facing charges.
Several changes are being made in response, including cutting some charges and ensuring any credits importers have don’t expire before December 2028.
Jamie Ensor is a senior political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.