When Parliament gets a new speaker MPs re-test the rules and the limits. Will this one let you away with things the previous one would not? Can you cripple their confidence and make them easier to manage?
If my memories of school are accurate, when students are faced with a new teacher there is generally a period of re-testing the limits. Are the rules the same? Will this teacher let you away with things that the previous teacher would not? Is the new one a tough nut or a push-over and can you influence which way that goes?
Parliament suffers similar strutting and fretting when there is a new presiding officer (e.g. the Speaker), the folk who interpret and enforce the rules.
First tests for the new blood
Recently Parliament elected as Speaker Adrian Rurawhe, the Labour MP for Te Tai Hauāuru. He comes with a hefty five years of experience as a presiding officer.
There is also a new Deputy Speaker: Labour MP for Ohariu Greg O'Connor. He has only a few weeks experience in the chair but as a former police officer is trained in raising threatening and quizzical eyebrows. This is an essential skill.
The testing by the naughty boys in class starts early and can last a while. Just minutes into Rurawhe's first day he was calming a small stoush (MPs get excitable in the uncertain newness).
With a teacherly calm, he waited for the MPs to settle rather than wailing over the din, then gave them a blast of cheerful sarcasm.
"Are members ready for me to rule? Thank you - I appreciate that. Both the point of order and the member speaking to the point of order are out of order."
Of course all presiding officers are challenged to some extent all the time, but it seems to ramp up a notch when there is new blood. Especially brand new blood.
Greg O'Connor chairs a committee stage from the Table.
Early naughtiness
Not long after Greg O'Connor's confirmation he needed to employ a threatening eyebrow with intent in the direction of National MP Simon O'Connor who was playing moody, recalcitrant schoolboy.
Greg O'Connor (L) asked Simon O'Connor (N) to stick to the topic and speak about the bill under debate please, a very common prodding. Simon O'Connor's response was delivered with a tone a classroom teacher might describe as insolent.
"Yeah, probably - probably. ..." He began to speak again, possibly on the bill, but was interrupted by Greg O'Connor unwilling to let the attitude slide.
"No, no, you will, Mr O'Connor."
"Oh, very good. We like to follow instruction in this democratic world..."
As we noted up front: …