Bishop ChrisPERSONAL EXPLANATIONSEarlier Personal Explanation—CorrectionCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): I seek leave to make a personal explanation to the House. SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that? Hon Chris Hipkins: Well what about?CHRIS BISHOP: Relating to a personal explanation I gave last week. SPEAKER: The member has sought the leave of the House to make a personal explanation which relates to the personal explanation he made in the House last week. I just say to members that it is very unusual to deny a member the right to make a personal explanation. Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. SPEAKER: A point of order Chris Hipkins before I put the matter. Hon Chris Hipkins: Yeah absolutely and it is very unusual to deny a member a right to make a personal explanation because it is important that where a member feels they have been misrepresented they are able to set the record straight on that. However if a member does that and does not fully tell the truth in that and then seeks to subsequently correct it again that's going to bring the whole process into disrepute. Members have to have the opportunity to correct where they're misrepresented but not to make a political statement which they then try to recant from. SPEAKER: What we have generally done as a House in the past when and if people wanted to make corrections to statements that they had made to the House in whatever circumstance—and I can think of only one example and it involved myself and I was wrong—we have given leave for that to occur because generally as a House we have felt that it's important that members have the opportunity to set the record straight and have it accurate in the House. Rt Hon Winston Peters: I seek some clarification here because if this is an explanation that is subsequent to a complaint on a privileges matter then at that point one has to ask whether this member is entitled to seek this refuge or rather give an explanation to the Privileges Committee. Hon Gerry Brownlee: There have been many members who are sitting in the House today who have made personal explanations to clarify situations where there could have been a matter of privilege raised potentially but what is important is that every member has the right to ask for the indulgence of the House to make a personal statement and it should be up to the member to determine whether or not the matter they want to raise before the House is appropriate for the House. Hon Chris Hipkins: Speaking further to the point of order Mr Speaker where a member seeks to make a personal explanation that therefore makes it clear that a personal explanation they had earlier given was not true is that member still able to be referred to the Privileges Committee for the abuse of the process in the earlier personal explanation? SPEAKER: The answer to that is they certainly could be but I will remind members that the test for reference to the Privileges Committee is relatively high in that it involves I think—the Deputy Prime Minister will probably correct me if I've got it wrong—mens rea: it's got to be deliberate. So if a letter is before me and that's something which of course it would not be appropriate for me to comment on now correcting it would be a factor I would take into account. Is there any objection? There is none.CHRIS BISHOP: Thank you Mr Speaker. At question time on Thursday last week I made a personal explanation that rejected the police Minister's statement that I had said police were bullying people. I accept that in response to an interjection from the floor at the meeting we are talking about I did make that comment.