Yesterday parliament saw one of its worst incidents of racism, as Winston Peters questioned the right of Teanau Tuiono to ask questions because he is "someone who comes from Rarotonga". Tuiono is from Northland, like Peters, but even were he from Kent, like Winston's colleague Andy Foster, it doesn't matter: he's a New Zealand citizen and an elected MP, and that's the end of it.
This rightly caused outrage, but Brownlee claimed not to have heard it and promised to review the Hansard and get back to the House on it. Today he did, and made the obvious ruling that this sort of racism is unacceptable and will be treated as highly disorderly (which you'd hope would mean apology or ejection). But he refused to require Winston to apologise because "the moment has passed". People with a political memory longer than a goldfish may recall that he made a completely different ruling back in August, when he required Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick to apologise for something he had already punished her for the day before, and named her and banned her for a week when she refused. But there are obvious differences between the two cases: specifically, Winston is a member of the regime, and he has a penis.
In other words, Brownlee has one rule for the government, and one for the opposition; one for men, and one for women. He's nothing but a partisan, misogynistic hypocrite, and his continued presence in the chair brings the House into disrepute.
