Unless you’ve been hiding under a stone you will know that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a special meeting of New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday morning.
His address (and the party leaders’ responses) have been covered in detail elsewhere. Suffice to say it was a fascinating and unusual occasion. More unusual than most folk realise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky listens to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's response to his address to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Despite media descriptions, it wasn’t the second time a foreign leader has addressed the New Zealand Parliament – it was the very first.
Yes the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke to MPs eleven years ago, but that was different. The Clerk of the House of Representatives explains.
“Back in 2011, when Julia Gillard did come to New Zealand to speak to members of Parliament, there was no mechanism in the rules to allow someone who wasn't a member of the House to speak to it. And so effectively, what happened is that all the members gathered in the debating chamber, and the Prime Minister of Australia spoke to them, but not as the House of Representatives, simply as a collection of MPs.”
They could have been anyone, anywhere. After the Julia Gillard occasion MPs changed their rules to make such a speech possible without having to fake it.
This week they finally found the opportunity to use those rules and have their first “State occasion” to hear an address from a non-MP. So Wednesday morning’s event really was historic. It seems fitting that the speaker was an extraordinary figure of the age.
The Clerk of the House of Representatives, David Wilson, gives evidence to Parliament's Standing Orders Committee about ideas for the 2023 Review of Standing Orders. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Who can speak in the House of Representatives?
The rules about who can enter the debating chamber and who can speak are interesting.
The key thing to know is that the place belongs to MPs. Everyone else is a “stranger”.
“It's a debating chamber for elected representatives to come and speak. It's not a town square for everyone to talk,” says David Wilson.
There are a few other people that can speak, but only for specific purposes. The Clerk and his staff give various announcements. The Serjeant-at-arms can also speak but his typical announcements are just two shouted words – “MISTAH SPEAKAH!!”
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Those people are all Officers of the House. There are just two more categories who can speak. Volodymyr Zelensky fell into the first of one – list him under 'guests invited to speak as part of a State occasion'.
The final category has also only happened once. You might list it as 'people in deep trouble'.
“The only other group, I suppose would be that people in trouble with Parliament could be summoned to the bar of the House and be questioned. That hasn't happened since 1896,” says David Wilson.
“The last time was the President of the Bank of New Zealand who wouldn't answer questions for a select committee, which angered Richard Seddon and he sort of lead the charge on that. It hasn't happened for a very long time. But it's still, in theory, a possibility.”
That would be something to see. The only question is who would you choose to be summoned and answer for themselves?
The bar at the door to the debating chamber, to which members of the public can be called to answer questions. Photo: VNP / Daniela Maoate-Cox
A time-travelling Parliament
One more way Parliament was unusual this week was that MPs time-travelled – at least on paper. It happened like this:
At 9am on Wednesday morning MPs met for an extended sitting, an extension of Tuesday’s debate. That made it technically still Tuesday inside the chamber. Yes Parliament’s debating chamber has a very fluid sense of time.
Oddly, before they had that extended Tuesday debate they met to hear Volodymyr Zelensky’s address. That happened at 8am on Wednesday morning.
So, officially at least, Parliament did Tuesday proper, then spent an hour in Wednesday, and then popped back to spend four more hours in Tuesday.
See, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott was wrong, you can break the laws of physics.
What's always shouty, but never Christmas?
There is a downside to the debating chamber’s limited understanding of calendars. When the MPs packed up and went home on Wednesday evening, it was December 14th.
Inside the chamber it will remain December 14th right up until MPs meet again on February 14, 2023. Yes, inside Parliament’s debating chamber there really is no Christmas.
It is good to know that there is a place where you can safely take shelter from compulsory festive cheer, interminable family gatherings, terrible Christmas movies and the King’s first Christmas speech.
