Appointments — Deputy Speaker Assistant SpeakersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAppointments — Deputy Speaker Assistant Speakers[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:9. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]AppointmentsDeputy SpeakerHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House):I move That Chester Borrows be appointed Deputy Speaker. Mr Borrows is a well-regarded member of this House having been a member since 2005. Prior to that he had a very long political apprenticeship as he came to understand the ways of this Parliament well before being elected to it. As a former police officer and a former lawyer he has a fine understanding of the justice system in New Zealand and the principles of justice. He has the ministerial experience of having been an Associate Minister for Social Development as well.I think his strong associations across the House and the recognition of him as the affable gentleman that he is will afford him considerable scope for his administration of the House in your stead Mr Speaker and I am sure that his general appreciation of parliamentary matters will ensure that he does fill the role of Deputy Speaker according to the wishes of this wider Parliament.CHRIS HIPKINS (Senior Whip—Labour):On behalf of the Opposition can I endorse the resolution and congratulate Chester Borrows on his elevation to the role of Deputy Speaker. I know that many of us will have worked with him in the select committees. He has previously chaired a number of select committees for Parliament and we have found him to be a fair and balanced chair and I look forward to him bringing those skills to the debating chamber.Motion agreed to.Assistant SpeakersHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House):I move That Lindsay Tisch be appointed Assistant Speaker. Mr Tisch has been a member of this House since 1999. He has very considerable political experience that goes well beyond the years he has spent in this House. He has also been part of the Speaker’s team since 2008. During that time I think he has developed a level of credibility and acceptance among his colleagues that will fit him very well to serve in this role in the coming Parliament. He is highly regarded by his own caucus and I know that many others sitting in this Parliament who have been in this House while he has been presiding have attested to his competence and fairness in the exercise of the Assistant Speaker’s role.CHRIS HIPKINS (Senior Whip—Labour):Can I also endorse this resolution and congratulate Lindsay Tisch on his re-election as Assistant Speaker. I would also like to note that following the departure of H V Ross Robertson he is now the longest-serving presiding officer of the House in the current Parliament and of course holds the record as being the only presiding officer to withdraw and apologise during the last term of Parliament. We welcome his re-election.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):The last thing that New Zealand First wants to do is to introduce a discordant note so early in proceedings but we are talking about parliamentary appointments and it would have been courteous surely or polite or properly parliamentary to approach other parties on this matter of appointments. The least we could have expected was to be consulted because we are being asked as members of Parliament to abide by the rulings of the Speaker the Deputy Speaker the Assistant Speakers and other people. Surely in a parliamentary sense therefore every parliamentary group in this House should have been consulted. I am not certain about the Greens. I am not certain about the Greens. All I can say is that we were not. It is all very fine to regard the matter as of no importance because obviously certain members over there do not understand the importance or the paramountcy of Parliament. But just to assume that you are going to get the support on an appointment because you have got what you suppose is the majority in the House is not good enough. We in New Zealand First believe—Denis O’Rourke: So much for inclusiveness.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: So much for inclusiveness—exactly. So much for grand Westminster traditions. Yes you could even go on further and say that it bespeaks of an awful arrogance. I do not want to go that far surely but let us please in the future have the decency to consult all of Parliament if you want every member of Parliament and every political party to abide by rulings coming from these officers in Parliament.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House):I realise that the procedure here is for there to not be a debate on these matters but I think it does a huge disservice to the balance of Parliament if there is not some response to the rather ridiculous comments that have just been offered to this House by Mr Peters. For a start for the last 6 years every effort has been made to make Parliament’s Business Committee far more relevant than it has been in any Parliament prior to that. Second this morning the Business Committee convened for a second time this week simply to accommodate New Zealand First’s organisational dysfunction and was then told that New Zealand First members still had not managed to make up their minds. If anyone is to talk in this House about disrespect for Parliament it would be every parliamentarian other than someone who sits in New Zealand First.Mr SPEAKER: I will put the question. The House can decide. The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those of that opinion will say Aye to the contrary No. The Ayes have it.Motion agreed to.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House):As I move this next motion I hope the last discordant moment is not some sort of a portent of what is about to happen. I move That the Hon Trevor Mallard be appointed Assistant Speaker. I did not think that I would ever be in this House moving a motion like this. If it were not for the fact that I have been reminded by the honourable gentleman over there that this is a parliamentary occasion I may well have quipped that should he be successful the Hon Trevor Mallard may be the first Speaker in the Chair to remove himself from the House.But appreciating the comments Mr Peters has made to the House I will simply say that I have worked with Mr Mallard on the Business Committee and in his role as shadow Leader of the House over a number of years and I know that he is at heart a true parliamentarian.Hon Members: Haha!Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well his colleagues of course may find it hard to believe that anyone on their side of the House has a heart but the reality is that Mr Mallard is a gentleman who does appreciate the procedures of Parliament and does respect the procedures of Parliament. Certainly over his political career he has enjoyed the theatre of Parliament as well. I think his broad experience in that regard will equip him very well as an assistant to you in your role Mr Speaker and we look forward to supporting him.CHRIS HIPKINS (Senior Whip—Labour):Mr Speaker—Grant Robertson: Where to start?CHRIS HIPKINS: Where to start! Can I also endorse this resolution and congratulate Trevor Mallard on his elevation to this role. I think many would agree that there are few people in Parliament who know the Standing Orders inside out and back to front in the way that he does. As the Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee has just acknowledged he has played a very constructive role in the proceedings of the Business Committee over the last couple of terms of Parliament and we are confident that he will be a good fair and impartial referee of the House’s proceedings.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):Although we have no particular objection to the nomination that has been made and we look forward to I guess the joy of watching Trevor Mallard as Assistant Speaker—it will be an interesting Parliament with him in that role—I would note for the House and for the public that no women have been nominated for any of these positions. Yet again—yet again under this Government—no women have been nominated for the positions of Speaker Deputy Speaker or Assistant Speaker. At a time when the New Zealand population is increasingly supporting and promoting women into positions of authority when yesterday this Parliament saw the Commission Opening of Parliament by three women justices we now have a situation in this Parliament where Parliament itself is behind the country in making sure that women are in positions of authority in our own Chamber. I think that is a disappointment. I think it is a disappointment for all of us that we have not made sure that more women are promoted into positions of authority in this House so that we too represent the population of this country which is increasing women’s representation in positions of authority. It is worth noting and I hope it will improve in the future. Thank you.Motion agreed to.Mr SPEAKER: Can I also specifically welcome to the team of presiding officers the Hon Chester Borrows Lindsay Tisch and particularly the Hon Trevor Mallard. All the members selected for these jobs have in the time I have been here shown a very high regard for the dignity of this House and I think that all three of them will bring a very special expertise to the running of this Parliament. Thank you.