Question Time

One of the great things about living in Wellington (and being interested in politics)is the ability to pop along to Question Time at 2pm on House Sitting days. While you can get an advance Hansard transcript of Question Time, you can't get a feel for who's really attacking who.

Today, I went along - in particular to see how Helen Clark would defend the unusual arrangements in forming a Government. She batted away the questions she was asked expertly.

Every time David Benson-Pope gave an answer, the words 'tennis ball' seem to float around the chamber.

It was also interesting to see how Gerry Brownlee and Rodney Hide treated Te Ururoa Flavell when he read his question (which he lodged in English) in Maori. Both tried to ensure that Speaker Margaret Wilson would advise the Maori Party to lodge questions in Maori.

But one thing I saw that I hadn't expected was the interjections from Tau Henare to Ron Mark and Peter Brown. Tau kept insisting that Ron Mark was 'part of the Government' - an accusation that seemed to rile Ron Mark visibly - and yelled 'That's a patsy question' when Peter Brown spoke.

Very interesting - I'll have to make an effort to go along in a month or so to see how things are going then.