Thursday, November 19, 2009



Smith undermines accountability again

Today in the House Speaker Lockwood Smith once again docked the opposition a supplementary question as punishment for misbehaviour.

I've blogged about this "punishment" before, and the same criticisms apply: this undermines the accountability of the government to Parliament, and hence to the people of New Zealand. In the process, it also undermines the legitimacy of both institutions.

Smith has other means available to punish misbehaving MPs (he could for example throw the bastards out for the day). He should use them, rather than robbing the people of New Zealand of a vital means of accountability.