The Speaker has 'named' Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick for refusing to leave the House.
Fellow politicians including Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and New Zealand First's Winston Peters have spoken in her defence, the former re-using the 'C-word' in Parliament, and the latter defending Swarbrick despite voting to have her ejected.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also stepped up his criticism of Israel and its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he had "lost the plot".
The punishment means the MP had to once again leave the House, and will have her pay docked.
Swarbrick was ejected from Parliament on Tuesday after refusing to withdraw and apologise for comments suggesting coalition MPs grow a spine and sanction Israel.
At the time, the Speaker barred Swarbrick for the rest of the week, unless she apologised when the House sat this afternoon.
However, a week-long suspension is not a punishment that has previously been in the Speaker's sole power to hand down - with more serious breaches of the rules instead referred to the Privileges Committee.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. (File photo) Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Returning on Wednesday she was again invited by Brownlee to apologise and again refused.
He ordered her to leave the House but she did not, so he "named" her, with government MPs voting to support his motion and the opposition opposed.
Naming is a punishment handed down by a Speaker for a MP whose conduct is disorderly.
After she was named, Swarbrick left shouting "free Palestine" on her way out.
Swarbrick had previously said she had already received her punishment, and that worse things had been said by other MPs without the Speaker's intervention.
Speaking to his ruling, Gerry Brownlee said the difference was previous comments had been interjections, while Swarbrick's comment was made inside a speech.
"If you think about the comment that was made, 68 members of this House were accused of being spineless. There has never been a time where personal insults like [that] delivered inside a speech were accepted by this House and I'm not going to start accepting it."
That was despite former National Prime Minister John Key in a speech in 2015 having said the then-opposition leader Andrew Little needed to "get some guts" and support the government's decision to send troops to Afghanistan.
Brownlee asked MPs what standard they expected of themselves.
"We have so many threats and other stuff being directed at Members of Parliament. If we don't change the behaviour in here, nothing will change outside."
Labour leader Chris Hipkins questioned the precedent of the ruling.
"There's not a single instance where a member has been asked to withdraw and apologise the following sitting day, and then named for not doing that."
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters also questioned the ruling.
Winston Peters said he did not agree with what Swarbrick said, but questioned the ruling. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"My personal view is I don't agree with a thing Chlöe Swarbrick said at all, but this is a robust House where people have a right to express their views as passionate as they may, within certain rules, but I do not think that eviction was warranted."
Peters said there had been many instances of language in the House he had disagreed with, including the use of the c-word earlier in the year.
Te Pati Maori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer referred to that in her contribution.
"There were many of us that were offended by the c... word, but what I do want to be able to assure is that spineless is a word, and it looks like the ruling is a political suppression," she said.
Ngarewa-Packer repeated the c-word outright.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer used the c-word in Parliament on Wednesday. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Swarbrick accuses Speaker of making things up
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Swarbrick said Brownlee had "now been explicit about the fact that he was the member who took personal offence at the statements that I made", and the situation now was "uncharted territory".
She said the rules were clearly being applied unequally, and suggested Brownlee was making up rules on the fly.
"There is no precedent. There is no historical situation similar to this that I am aware of. We've asked the Parliamentary Library to come forward with that. So yes, it's clear that things are being made up."
She, fellow Greens co-leader Marama Davidson and musterer Ricardo Menendez March had met with Brownlee earlier in the day, she said - and raised points about the inconsistency between her comments and those of John Key in 2015 calling for the opposition to "get some guts" - a statement that went entirely unpunished.
"As recently as yesterday, the same day that I was outed of Parliament, Chris Bishop called the opposition stupid.
"So we've had not only similar words, but actually far more egregious and worse words used in Parliament.
"So that's the first thing. Secondly, I had already complied with the punishment that he had dished out, and now he is seeking to apply an entirely new set of punishments that is unprecedented."
The Greens were considering whether they had confidence in the Speaker, she said, but indicated she would be willing to meet with him again.
"I'm always willing to meet with people, including those who think that they ardently hate me.
"But when it comes to, you know, the Speaker of the House, we would have hoped that his job was to uphold decorum and, you know, the basic kind of application of rules fairly across the board, I don't, I don't think that that's happening here."
She did not seem impressed by the prime minister saying Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "lost the plot".
"Palestinians in Gaza can't eat empty statements. That is not stopping the slaughter.
"For all of the tough talk, which is finally coming to the fore after two years of inaction, the government has yet to put any meaningful substance behind their words.
"If they want to put substance behind those words, the very least that they could do is apply the exact same approach that they did to Russia, and that's exactly why we drafted the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill."
A repeat of the ejection was unlikely on Thursday, with Swarbrick having already planned to be in her Auckland electorate for the day.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
