Parker David: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Sitting date: 06 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6325. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 It was me who raised the point of order and unusually followed it through to your recall. I do not do that often. The first point I would make is that we know the demeanour of different members of this House. You certainly cannot call the member who put this amendment Kennedy Graham one of the more capricious members of this House. He would be one of the more serious members of this House and he believes that his amendment is appropriate. 
Secondly the discussion that you have already had to hear as to whether this is an appropriate amendment shows that it is a debatable point. It is a debatable point. If the Speaker has been listening to this debate as the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill has proceeded through earlier stages and earlier parts of the Committee stage he will have heard that it is the Opposition’s contention that by excluding 50 percent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions from the emissions trading scheme it has the effect of enabling an increase in emissions. That is a debatable point that it is within the purview of Opposition parties to put. 
The third point I would say is that I understand why these rulings are starting to be made. There were times when there were hundreds of amendments being put to the titles of bills and some of them were effectively trying to unfairly delay the business of this House. There is one amendment to the name of this bill on the table. With respect I believe that the appropriate course if the Government disagrees with this change of name is to vote against it. It is not appropriate that the amendment be ruled out of order because in my submission it is quite properly in the power of the Opposition to call a bill what it really is doing and that is all this amendment tries to do. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I thank members for their contributions to my consideration of the matter. The issue to me is how a reasonable person would respond to what has taken place because we do not have a specific Standing Order covering these matters but there are fairly clear Speakers’ rulings. If one looks at Speaker’s rulings 117/1 they cover a very similar issue where it is proposed that titles of bills should be changed to be less than objective to create a political view if you like of what a political view may consider the legislation to be doing. They have all been ruled out. I think a reasonable person would say that to change a bill’s title from the “Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading and Other Matters) Amendment Bill” to the “Climate Change Response (Emissions Encouragement) Amendment Bill” is a very different title and contains the same kind of political view that is expressed in those titles in Speaker’s rulings 117/1 that have been ruled out. I think a reasonable person would arrive at that conclusion. I just want to encourage the House on these serious matters—because I fully accept that this is a serious matter—to be reasonable. That is why I believe I must support the Chair of the Committee in ruling out that amendment to the title based on Speaker’s rulings 116/6 and particularly 117/1. I therefore declare the House in Committee for further consideration of the bill. 
Dr Kennedy Graham 
: May I speak to the point of order? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Does the member wish to raise a further point of order? Dr Kennedy Graham. 
Dr Kennedy Graham 
: Well just to— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have just declared the House back in Committee. I will withhold that for a moment so that I do not preclude the member from raising his point of order.