In the middle of Parliament is a huge table where no meal has ever been served. It’s not even used for coffee, though there are glasses for water at one end.
This is not just any table, it’s The Table. It is the reason for the verb ‘to table’.
And it is a sanctuary for dangerous writing.
The safest table in New Zealand Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Mostly it’s used for stacking documents, but never a good novel. There are Committee Reports, Annual Reports, Bills, Supplementary Order Papers, Impact Statements, Reports of Inquiries... you get the idea.
Pretty much every document that comes to Parliament is physically put here, at least metaphorically.
They are ‘tabled’. Every amendment, every report, every piece of evidence that Parliament accepts on its record.
They have to be tabled to be official. Even some things said aloud, like proposed amendments to legislation, which though they are said to the House, have to be written down and tabled as well so there is an official record of their exact wording.
And every single word is safe. Here, words may be inflammatory, but they can't legally burn you.
Because any document that is tabled on this glossy piece of furniture, while it is here, is covered by Parliament’s Absolute Privilege - a right to say and to read whatever it desires without legal recourse; however defamatory, however scandalous, however secret.
A table can't get much safer than that.
Keepers of the Table, Deputy Clerk, Rafael Gonzalez-Montero & Clerk at the Table, James Picker. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
One short note for confused Americans: in New Zealand’s parliamentary usage, when a document is tabled it is put on the record and made available. A bill is tabled to be debated. A report is tabled to be considered, etc. The same is true in Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth. This is the opposite of in the topsy turvy United States, where something is tabled to be ignored, paused, or put aside.
