Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Labour has sent a last-minute offer to the government to try and cut a deal and prevent a long debate on the privileges committee report in the House Tuesday afternoon.
The Labour caucus have agreed to not deliberately filibuster in the privileges committee debate, and to put up amendments to be voted on that would lessen the punishment for Te Pāti Māori.
RNZ understands any Labour MP who wants to speak to the debate will be able to do so, but there isn't any intention to deliberately drag the debate out.
One of the amendments would be to shorten the punishments to something closer to a 1-3 day suspension for co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and censure MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, but not suspend her from the House.
Another amendment would be to defer the suspensions until after the Budget debate has been held so the MPs can participate.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has contacted both the Prime Minister and Leader of the House Chris Bishop about the amendments, committing to keep the debate short and restrict the number of MPs who speak in the debate if they're accepted by the government.
Earlier on Tuesday Hipkins told Morning Report Labour was unlikely to engage in filibustering to slow the progress of the debate, and he doubted all his MPs would take a call in the debate.
But just a few hours later at Parliament Hipkins said his party was leaving "all options on the table at this point".
He told reporters on his way into caucus that he'd got in touch with the government side this morning to "reiterate to them that we're open to a shorter debate if the penalty being proposed is brought back in line with past precedent".
Somewhere between 1-3 days is what Labour considers to be fair, and if the government is willing to compromise and reduce it to that then the debate could be wrapped up sooner, he said.
The prime minister says Chris Hipkins 'flip-flops' every day. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
But Luxon has already ruled out any concessions being made and doubled down on his way into caucus this morning saying the government stands by the recommendations in the privileges committee report.
Hipkins had another offer on the table too - that any suspension not impede Te Pāti Māori from taking part in the Budget debate on Thursday.
"If it was 24 hours it could be done and dusted by Budget if done today, if it was anything that could intefere in their ability to participate in the Budget debate then it should be deferred until after the Budget.
"That's what we offered to the government as an option for me to take to the caucus, but I haven't heard back."
Luxon, however, says all of this just proves how inconsistent Hipkins is.
"He flip-flops literally every single day, frankly I don't care, I do not care what Chris Hipkins or Labour does on this.
"It is a real privilege to come to this place called Parliament. We want this place to represent all New Zealanders...but it's important when you come here and the taxpayers' funding it that you actually behave within some rules, so there has to be consequences for misbehaviour," he said.
Luxon has no plans to speak in the debate following Question Time. He said he had more important things to be doing like "running the Budget".
The leader of the House, senior National MP Chris Bishop, was unapologetic about the government's support for the privileges committee report.
"It's an unprecedented punishment in theory but it's also an unprecedented series of events where they walked over and did a haka...Debbie Ngarewa-Packer essentially pointed a gun at members of the government."
When it was pointed out to Bishop the co-leader didn't literally bring a gun to the House, he conceded it was a "finger gun".
"They are yet to apologise and take account for what they did, they showed contempt for Parliament, they do not seem to even recognise the jurisdiction of the privileges committee."
Chris Bishop is unapologetic about the government's support for the report. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Bishop said while the privileges committee hadn't taken into account the MPs' failure to show up to the committee, he said other politicians were "entitled to take that into account" when deciding whether the punishment is justified.
"I certainly for one have."
"If they had shown more interest in the process and apologised and accepted they'd done wrong we'd be having a very different conversation. But they don't accept they've done anything wrong, they need to realise they have broken the rules," he said.
On whether any compromise could be found with Labour to shorten the debate, Bishop said "ultimately the parties are too far apart" on what is a proportionate penalty.
"I think they deserve to be sanctioned and punished for what happened and I think 21 days is appropriate - the National Party is of that view."
Hipkins agrees with Bishop that the finger gun was "totally unacceptable" but doesn't think it amounts to such a significant punishment.
"The question is whether this is the worst thing that has ever happened in the New Zealand parliament by a magnitude of about ten, and I don't think it is."
When there have been politicians who have had fist-fights in the Parliament lobbies, driven tractors and landrovers up the stairs of Parliament and pulled the fingers at each other in the House, and not been suspended it raises questions about the proportionality of this case, he said.
"I think the threshold for suspending someone for three weeks has to be pretty damn high."
He also believes Te Pāti Māori have missed an opportunity with how they handled the privileges committee process.
"I don't think the Māori Party has covered themselves in glory either, they could have used this as the catalyst for having a positive conversation about tikanga in the House, and they chose to walk away from that."
The chair of the privileges committee, National's Judith Collins, says she is comfortable with the 21-day suspension proposed.
"The behaviours of three members of parliament was such that the privileges committee on a majority decision decided that we needed to have a punishment to fit the crime.
Collins said the National Party always supported Privileges Committee decisions, regardless of who it applied to - including National MPs.
"I think this is a reasonable situation and that we do need to have an end to disruptions while votes are being undertaken, and the crossing the floor and threatening behaviour - this has to stop."
