TV brings House into the home

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 1

TV brings House into the home

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington A grim little smile played on Sir Robert Muldoon’s face as he walked into the debating chamber to dominate the first live telecast of Parliament. Dominate it he did but only in the House itself, not on the small screen. There he was defeated by the rules governing television’s coverage. Only formal proceedings are being televised — questions and answers, the presentation of papers and petitions — and Sir Robert’s contribution was through a series of informal interjections which, while they hit their mark, were scrambled to the viewer.

Sir Robert appeared on camera only once when, on the instructions of the Speaker, Dr Wall, he withdrew an allegation that the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, was not telling the truth. The incident occurred after an exchange between Sir Robert and Mr Lange as Mr Lange was retailing the “indications of support” he had received in Europe for continued access of New Zealand butter to the European Community over the next two years. Sir Robert interrupted the answer with a reference to “toad in slime” — a derivative of the description Mr Lange applied to him in the recently publicised letter he wrote

to his bank manager as Leader of the Opposition in 1984. Quick as a flash, Mr Lange bounced back with “This Prime Minister never called a President of the United States a peanut farmer.” He then went on with the business in hand. Mr Lange said Britain had shown “firm” support for New Zealand’s case; the Netherlands, “consistent” support; Denmark, "understanding”; and Ireland, “a statement of acknowledgement of the right of access but .. At this stage, Sir Robert cut across his bows again with an interruption: “A flat ‘no’ from the Irish as usual,” he said. Referring to : Sir

Robert’s Irish ancestry, Mr Lange agreed that some Irish exports had been “distinctly unhelpful for New Zealand.” He was rewarded for his sharpness with loud laughter from the Government benches — a feature of the noisy Greek chorus which both sides maintained throughout the live broadcast. Whenever a point was scored, they could be heard in the wings groaning, laughing, crying “Shame,” doing whatever they could to cue the reactions of their audience.

“Going live” began as an event for the members but within 30 minutes they seemed to have

settled down and all but forgotten the cameras, giving rise to the suspicion that the adage “a week is a long time in politics” owes more to the concentration span of politicians than to. the pace of events.

Still, as they filed in and waited for their starting orders, they were plainly self-conscious and uneasy, exhibiting all the brittle camaraderie of a roomful of students waiting for their examination papers to be handed out Amid the calling across the room, the louder than usual buzz of conversation, the jokes and the nervous giggling, new haircuts were spotted and the wearers of them duly

discomfited. Just briefly, good grooming was political and the points apparently were to be lost rather than won. For all that, most members were conspicuously on their best behaviour. Witness the prayer. The Speaker always says it at the beginning of each day’s session but often it is a pro forma affair and, as heads are bobbed in a posture of reverence, eyes stray over correspondence. This time, however, only the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, took the opportunity to read and sign a document on his desk.

The House was better attended than is often the case, particularly by the Cabinet, which had only two members absent, both of them overseas. This high attendance prompted Mr lan McLean (National, Tarawera), to jeer, “Where did all the Ministers come from?” In the hot seat and obviously aware of it was the Speaker, Dr Wall. He seemed a little fazed by having "the eyes of the nation” on him and was accused by Sir Robert of stage fright when he fluffed the Order Paper, skipping a step and calling for questions of the day before asking if there were any papers to be presented.

Both National and Labour were determined to exploit whatever exposure they got. On the Government’s part, this determination expressed itself in “patsy” questions —• a long standing Parliamentary tradition but particularly in evidence yesterday. An example, from a member recognised as a leading exponent of the practice, Mr Richard Northey (Labour, Mount Eden), was to the Minister of Housing, Mr Goff: "What have been the changes in the rate at which the Housing Corporation has been able to house modest-income families seeking rental accommodation in the last three years?” jpiis gave Mr Goff the cKnce to boast “a con-

sistent increase since the election.” The member who came off worst in yesterday’s experiment was Mr Winston Peters (National, Tauranga). He is usually combative in the House and deserves his reputation as one of its best "operators” but was put badly off stride when he asked the Minister of Transport, Mr Prebble, whether a Cook Strait ferry, had briefly run aground in Tory Channel on March 29 and, if so, what were the circumstances and results of any ensuing report. The short answer was that no such grounding had occurred. Mr Prebble said his Ministry was not in the practice of producing reports "on things that haven’t happened.”