In Parliament this week (like last week), there were only about half the usual number of oral questions in Question Time. Te Paati Maori and the Labour party backbench have not been asking questions of the ministers.
To balance that the major party leaders have been in the House everyday (they are traditionally absent on Thursdays to travel).
Photo: Pool / ROBERT KITCHIN / STUFF
All week Parliament was operating under the rules it set for Levels 3 & 4, despite Wellington moving to level 2. Which is why on Wednesday the Speaker made the unusual ruling:
“Before we come to question number two, I'm just going to note that there are currently too many Labour members in the House and at least one of them will leave.”
I bet the opposition wishes they were also allowed to decree that.
This week there have been more MPs around the precinct than are allowed in the chamber at a time so they have been tag-teaming. During Question Time it was particularly opposition MPs who swapped in and out of the chamber to ask a question on a topic in their own area of expertise.
Even with tag-teaming, there were only been a few ministers available to answer questions. But that wasn’t too problematic because every question this week related back to Covid-19, and were aimed at just a few ministers.
You might think that within the Covid-19 sphere there are only so many things to talk about. You’d be surprised.
Judith Collins alone questioned the Prime Minister on vaccination targets, vaccine passports, vaccine mandates, vaccine outcomes, outbreak preparedness, business support, and debt levels.
ACT leader David Seymour also touched on multiple topics but focused on border and saliva testing and the Middlemore hospital patient who unexpectedly tested positive.
National Party Deputy leader Shane Reti tried a different tack and focused his efforts (not being a party leader he focuses on his spokesperson area and opposite number). He too questioned Andrew Little, the Minister of Health, about the Middlemore patient.
As you might expect National's Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop focused on Covid-19 - with questions to his opposite number Chris Hipkins. He particularly probed on the Auckland border and saliva testing.
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter was the only MP all week that wasn’t really talking Covid - her questions were about rent and rent controls. But even she began with a Covid hook before diverging into wider rent price topics.
National’s finance spokesperson Michael Woodhouse focused all week on government spending and specifically the mechanics of Imprest Supply. Rather than explaining that now The House will focus on that topic on our show on Sunday September 19th. I bet you just can’t wait.
Finally, both National MP Louise Upston and Green MP Jan Logie had questions about the wage subsidy scheme.
For a week that was all about passing the budget it was a very, very Covid kind of week.
But just like the budget Covid has a way of impacting every possible area of the economy and society.
You can read through the week's Q&A on Hansard here, or watch the interchanges at PTV on demand here.
