The Green Party has decided to lend its share of primary questions to the National Party, so that instead of a Green backbench MP asking easy questions of ministers, opposition MPs can ask hard ones.
This event is a great excuse to discuss the purpose of Oral Questions in Parliament, and the structure of Parliament itself. First a bit of basic, procedural stuff.
Green MP Chloe Swarbrick asks a question Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Primary Questions
Question time each sitting-day consists of 12 kick-off questions to ministers (primary questions); each one opening up a topic for further interrogation.
Primary questions are shared out proportionally by how many MPs each party has that aren’t members of ‘the executive’. The opposition gets most of the primary questions because nearly half the MPs on the governing side of the House are in the Cabinet, and so aren’t counted as non-executive MPs.
It’s these primary questions that the Green Party are gifting to the National Party.
Supplementary Questions
Each primary question can be followed up with supplementary questions, divvied up proportionally by the same method. These questions are under the control of the Speaker, who like an old-world deity, can giveth and can taketh away. The Greens are keeping hold of their supplementaries.
The Speaker, Trevor Mallard, making a ruling Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
The Point of Question Time - Branch v Branch
Asking question is not just a political exercise where parties score points against each other; it’s a significant aspect of the ‘checks and balances’ of New Zealand’s democratic structure.
The point of both written and oral questions in Parliament is that the Executive gets held to account by the Legislature. This is where one branch of government gets to grill a different branch of government.
Legislature, Parliament, Government, Executive, Cabinet - just how many branches of Government are there?
In New Zealand’s system there are just three branches of Government: the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. But we’re ignoring the Judiciary here.
We’re talking about the Executive (which is the Government), and the Legislature (which is the House of Representatives). The House of Representatives is usually referred to as Parliament - but strictly speaking Parliament is the House plus the Governor General).
The tricky bit is that the Executive is a subset of the House of Representatives. While the Legislature is the House of Representatives. Confused yet?
So during question time the one House splits into two branches of Government - and one of them attempts to nail the other to the wall.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
Not every Government MP is in the Government
The important thing is that not every Labour, New Zealand First or Green MPs is part of the Government. Only the Ministers are members of the Executive or Government.
The other MPs, the so-called back-benchers, are only members of the Legislature - just like the opposition.
And one job of the Legislature is to act as a check on the Executive. So, strictly speaking, the questions allocated to Labour, New Zealand First or to the Greens needn’t be easy patsy questions, or as the Speaker calls them Donkey Drops, soft balls waiting to be hit out of the park. They could be tough, searching inquiries.
The reality
Asking tough questions of your party’s coalition partners might help a small party differentiate themselves. But, asking tough questions is not a recipe for stable government. Hence the long-standing tradition of patsies.
Hence the Green Party deciding to ditch the whole idea and just let someone else from the Legislature play tough guy with the Executive.
