Like a student flat, parliament runs on rosters

Like an uncooperative student flat Parliament relies on rosters to organise who gets to speak when. Lots of rosters. And like that flat it probably stops squabbles.

As the nation's ultimate debaters, parliamentarians unsurprisingly, are focused on contest, one-upmanship, and often just getting a word in. Given the often quarrelsome environment, parliament operates very carefully, and its rules have to be especially even-handed.

You can see how crucial they are to maintaining order every day during Question Time, as they are pushed to their limits. To prevent more unnecessary squabbling than there already is, Question Time relies on rosters to organise who gets to speak when - so do debates. A bit like a student flat's cleaning roster, though this one tends to actually work most of the time.

During Question Time on Wednesday, instead of being the guiding schedule for interrogation, the roster suddenly became the subject of it.

During a series of questions to the Prime Minister from Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, an MP popped up with a supplementary question. It came from the very back corner of the chamber - from a corner sometimes referred to as 'the naughty seat.' Specifically, it came from the very recently independent MP Darlene Tana.

Following Tana's seemingly routine exchange, Winston Peters popped up, as he tends to do, with a point of order. Peters queried Tana's question entitlement. "If somebody's been away from this House for 110 days, how did they get back into the cycle of being entitled to a question that passed, in the way that Darleen Tana just did?", to which the Speaker quipped back, "Well, that is the way in which Parliament operates. There's nothing unusual here. There is a process and there is a roster."

Brownlee suggested Peters ask his party whip to explain it to him. It seemed Peters wasn't alone in his confusion. Leader of the House and National MP Chris Bishop got up to give his two cents. "It is a bit odd that very soon after expulsion she's entitled to two supplementary questions almost immediately. I think it does strike many of us as slightly strange."

Gerry Brownlee was not gentle.

"I'll tell you what strikes me as strange: it strikes me as particularly peculiar and very odd that the Leader of the House, who is a major player in the Business Committee, does not remember that the Business Committee approved the roster that gives these questions.

Parliament's traffic controllers…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details