The incident was sparked by Act leader David Seymour attempting to ask a question in te reo Māori which fell flat with Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe, who said Seymour was not actually asking a proper question.
Act’s questions, which built on an initial question from National leader Christopher Luxon, used MPs’ personal circumstances to ask Prime Minister Chris Hipkins about how ethnicity will be used as a factor to judge priority with respect to surgical waitlists.
For example, Act’s Karen Chhour, who is Māori, asked Hipkins why her Cambodian partner could be further down on a waitlist compared with her because she had a different ethnicity.
Hipkins responded to the various questions by saying people who were Māori, Pasifika, rural or low-income had historically been let down by the health system and efforts to remove the discrimination were warranted.
Ethnicity was one factor that informed Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ new “Equity Adjustor Score”, which uses an algorithm to prioritise patients according to clinical priority, time spent on the waitlist, geographic location (isolated areas), deprivation level and ethnicity.
Following a question from Act’s Dr James McDowall, Davidson stood to address the Speaker and asked about a previous ruling about MPs considering the consequences of their questions.
She then claimed, “the nature of these questions are absolutely intended to raise racist opinions amongst the New Zealand public”.
Rurawhe immediately interjected, saying Davidson’s claim was a “very serious accusation” and acknowledged he was considering kicking her out of the House.
On requesting her to stand, withdraw her accusation and apologise, Davidson replied, “I stand, withdraw and apologise” and then immediately raised another issue.
That was enough for Rurawhe to make up his mind and eject Davidson from the House.
In an interesting twist, Rurawhe admitted later in Question Time that he had broken the rules by ejecting Davidson as she had been set to ask the last of the day’s 12 primary questions.
Opening the matter up to the House after Davidson had returned, Seymour rose to say Davidson should face a penalty for her actions, boldly saying that if she didn’t, Rurawhe’s punishment would be “castrated”.
At that point, Rurawhe quickly concluded Question Time without Davidson being able to ask her question.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Davidson accepted Rurawhe was in charge but did not change her position.
“We will always stand against people whipping up fear and division when we instead should be making health access better for everyone,” she said.
“[The Act Party] actually don’t care about equity, they are weaponising fear and division of people for votes.
“That to me seems quite horrific actually.”
Act’s questioning style also clearly annoyed Government MPs who interrupted Act’s Damien Smith’s question, which is against the rules as questions must be heard in silence.
Rurawhe, who had quite a busy Question Time today, was forced to stand and admonish the Government MPs.
“If the Government doesn’t want to be scrutinised, that’s the message you’re sending right now by interrupting, interjecting while a question is being asked,” he said to them.
The whole saga was initiated by Seymour’s bungled question, which Rurawhe later said was not a proper question.
Seymour, of the Ngāpuhi iwi, initially said, “He Māori ahau mo nga kaupapa hauora” - intending to ask Hipkins, “Am I Māori for healthcare purposes”.
Later, following a brief exchange between Seymour and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, the Act leader attempted the question again, this time adding Ki a koe (do you consider) to the beginning.
Assisted by an interpretation by Rurawhe, Hipkins said Seymour could “make his own judgement about what his ethnicity is”.
