With the parliamentary term wrapping up ahead of the election, this week’s He Aha te Whakatau looks back at the big moments of the 54th Parliament.
The show reflects on three years of haka, walkouts, ejections, heated exchanges and political turmoil - with Māori and Te Tiriti at the centre of many of Parliament’s biggest moments, from the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s Treaty Principles Bill protest to the recent removal of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Willie Jackson from the chamber.
“There’s still so many moments where you’re like, that is so not what I expected from the people that are meant to govern Aotearoa,” says He Aha te Whakatau Kaihautū, Rukuwai Tipene-Allen.
“Because of the precedent set in [the] Hīkoi, which also was the record number of submissions, broke the websites, which got so many people engaged in politics, especially our rangatahi Māori,” says Kaiwhakataki Māni Dunlop.
“I spoke to a lot of people [who are] obviously, they’re detesting the Treaty Principles Bill, but [they] always gave a mihi to David Seymour to be like wow, look at what he’s done in getting us all out.”
The show also looked into the numbers behind the 54th Parliament, where MPs have considered hundreds of bills, with many dealt with under urgency.
- 245 bills considered
- 214 received Royal Assent and became Acts
- 167 bills were affected by urgency at one or more stages
- 24 days spent in urgency
- 212 sitting days
Dunlop compared this to previous governments, saying under Jacinda Ardern’s Government, 275 bills were passed, with 283 under the Government before it.
Urgency was used for 167 bills during the current term, compared with 80 under Ardern’s Government and 83 under the Government before that.
“It’s really telling right at the end of the term, that these were the things that they wanted to get over the line,” Tipene-Allen says.
The show wraps with a look at the Ngā Manu Kōrero Nationals in Kaikohe this week, reflecting on the young pūkōrero from across Aotearoa - what they want from political leaders, the issues that matter to them, and what they want the political future of Aotearoa to look like.
Dunlop judged at the Te Whanganui-a-Tara regional competition and says she was impressed by the calibre of kaikōrero this year.
“The level and also they were so versed in te ao tōrangapū and current affairs in a really deep way, and it was incredible.”
