Points of Order

TE URUROA FLAVELL (Whip—Māori Party) Link to this

I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. Kia ora tātou. I rise to seek some clarification from you. Last night during the debate on the Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill, the Speaker sought clarification from Mr Christopher Finlayson as to whether he should be referred to as “Chris”, which is what the Speaker at the time had written in front of her, or as “Christopher”. Mr Finlayson responded by saying: “I made it very clear when I came in here that out of respect to the House, not out of respect to me, I thought that I should be called by my full name.”

The Māori Party has reflected on this matter regarding names in general, and I now refer to Hansard, Volume 633, at page 4654 and a discussion on mispronunciation of Māori language and members’ names. The Assistant Speaker at the time, Ann Hartley, stated that the presiding officers had made a ruling. The ruling was: “To pronounce a word differently from the way in which another member pronounces that word is not a matter of order. There are many different ways to pronounce English words and I presume that this is true of Māori words too. No member in this House has the monopoly of directing how a word is to be pronounced. But if a member deliberately mispronounces a word—particularly another member’s name—so as to create disorder, then that is out of order and the Speaker, on the Speaker’s own initiative or on the matter being raised as a point of order, will intervene.”

The point we are raising in terms of names in the House is, firstly, that mispronunciation of words does cause offence and leads to misunderstandings. Secondly, the presumption, according to the Speaker’s ruling, is that a Speaker in intervening has a level of competency in Māori language pronunciation that would allow that person to intervene appropriately. If this is not the case, the Māori Party would respectfully suggest that the Speaker’s ruling of 2 August 2006 needs to be revisited. We request this as our members are continually offended by the mispronunciation of our names and we do not wish to continually cause delays in the House by raising points of order regarding this. We hope members of this House will demonstrate maturity by pronouncing correctly one of the two official languages of the country.

In closing this, I on behalf of the Māori Party, like Mr Finlayson, out of respect to this House, wish to advise members that our names are: Tariana Turia, Pita Sharples, Hone Harawira, and Te Ururoa Flavell. We implore all members of this House to call us by our proper names and pronounce them correctly. Tēnā koutou katoa.