Brownlee Gerry; Simpson Scott; Abel Steve; Weenink Vanessa; Chhour Karen; Genter Julie AnneHouse resumed.Speaker RecalledSPEAKER: The House is resumed. Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (Senior Whip—National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I've asked you to be recalled to the Chair because of an incident that took place a few minutes ago during the hearings that the committee was involved with. Rachel Boyack was speaking and then an interjection and an interaction occurred between my colleague the Hon Matt Doocey sitting down here and the Hon Julie Anne Genter where the honourable member Julie Anne Genter strode across the Chamber of the House and physically accosted Minister Doocey in a threatening intimidatory way that I think is utterly unbecoming and unparliamentary of this Chamber. I've never seen behaviour of that sort in this Chamber in my time in this House. I think it's a serious matter that warrants an intervention immediately and that the member is still sitting in this Chamber without having apologised or accounted for her actions is I think intolerable and needs your intervention. Further I'm advised that the footage is clearly available on the parliamentary video facility. SPEAKER: Therefore publicly available as well. STEVE ABEL (Green): May I speak? I was not in the Chamber at the time but I did see the end of the alleged incident on Parliament TV upstairs. I did not see any contact between the member and the member across—and I appreciate you nodding your head to that. There was no physical contact. I understand from my colleague that she feels strongly about the issue and wanted to show the member the actual data in a booklet. She's a very science and data - driven human being and she was wanting to show him the actual information in the booklet and when there was an intervention immediately by the Chair—Barbara Kuriger—the member then rightly crossed the floor and took her seat and has remained in place since then. That is my understanding of what happened and I just wanted to convey that to you Mr Speaker. Dr VANESSA WEENINK (National—Banks Peninsula): All of us witnessed this incident. At the time whilst some of us found some aspects of it quite amusing looking at the situation from the perspective of there was my colleague seated whilst a person was standing over him with a book making a lot of gestures and angry—Hon Scott Simpson: Loud. Dr VANESSA WEENINK: —loud and quite intimidating actions and I reflected that had that been myself sitting there with either another female or indeed if a male was doing that to me the way that that would be viewed would be quite different. But I feel that no matter who it was that was an extraordinary outburst and it was intimidating in its nature—coming from where I was sitting. Hon KAREN CHHOUR (Minister for Children): I would like to add to that that from my position it looked like a huge amount of intimidation that was going on very close to the person—standing over the person—and physically shaking a book in that person's face. If that was me I would have felt very intimidated and I feel that it was really inappropriate. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): If I could apologise for my actions Mr Speaker. It was the last thing I wanted to do to intimidate anyone in this House. What has absolutely motivated me is a desire to share information that I believe would be of benefit to everyone in this House and I'm very sorry that if in my passion to do so I was intimidating. That was not my intention. SPEAKER: Well it is most certainly not unusual for MPs from either side of the House to have discussions that are quiet. They're normally within the benches—in fact they're always within the benches—because it is not appropriate for any MP to stand on the floor of Parliament and to engage in effectively debate if that's what it was. I'm not in a position to say that I saw it—I'm a bit like Mr Abel. I'm only listening to what I've heard and it doesn't reflect well on Parliament when we have these sorts of moments. I think the member has just indicated that you're apologetic for what is really what I missed if you like in the scheme of things. You may in a moment when I call you—when I call you you might like to expand on that a little bit. But what I do want to say to all members of the House is that if any member believes at any point that anyone has breached the Standing Orders or breached the privilege of the House which is to speak freely and to speak in an environment where you're unintimidated by anybody else and in an environment where your views are challenged only from the speaking position of the person who might like to challenge them—that is debate. Beyond that it becomes potentially something else. I'll hear for the last time from Julie Anne Genter. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Apologies Mr Speaker. I didn't hear the last thing you said—you'd hear from me? SPEAKER: Oh it was incredibly wise so I'm sorry that you missed it. I just said that it is totally inappropriate for there to be any actions that can in any way be considered intimidating so that's where you're at. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: That is Mr Speaker why I'm apologising that I was physically intimidating. It was not my intention—SPEAKER: All right. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: —and I will not do that in the future. SPEAKER: Good. Well we don't want to see that happen again. If the member feels that her passionate feelings about the matters being debated are to such a point where you feel like you need to intervene like that I would suggest that quietly going out of the House would be a much better solution and far more orderly than approaching anybody in their benches. So I'd just state again that I think we'll now return to the committee but if anyone feels as though there has been a breach of privilege then they know that there is a course of action to follow in that regard. The House is back in committee. The committee is resumed.