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The House: Tactics From The 'Scrutiny Week' Bear Pit
Phil Smith, Editor: The House
This week, Parliament hosted a twice-yearly event called 'Scrutiny Week'. It was a sitting week and MPs were expected to be in Wellington, but the House didn't sit, no legislation was debated and there were no question times.
Instead, the ministers were all expected to spend time fronting hearings in the 12 subject select committees defending their budget plans - hence 'scrutiny'.
On the Sunday edition of The House you can hear an interview with Lawrence Xu-Nan about Scrutiny Week and the intense preparation necessary. You can also listen to a quick description of a few of the more political tactics observed in hearings.
Politics muddies everything in Parliament, including Parliament's role in providing governance over governments. In Scrutiny Week, some politics is inevitable in both MPs' questions and ministers' answers.
Our focus on the tactics is more about the answers than the questions, because those answering tend to employ a wider range of techniques.
Either the ministers have more tactical options available or they are more creative in finding them.
No matter who is in government, some ministers genuinely engage in the spirit of the event, freely answering questions and providing information.
Others tend to be grudging with details. Some face aggressive political questions evincing fiercely political answers and a few appear to just really enjoy the stoush.
Listen above for examples of political questions and answers tactics, including rejection of questions, answering alternative questions, redefining the terms, insult and humour as a defence, and various ways to eat up time.
Oddly, sometimes ministers get so involved in the tussle that they ignore options to their own benefit. Typically, sitting beside a minister under scrutiny are senior ministerial officials - whose answers are less politically suspect.
Sometimes, if an official can get a word in, the detail given is positive and the minister had no reason to be obfuscating - other than for the fun of the stoush.
The audio above might give the appearance that Scrutiny Week is an endless and frustrating bear pit, and it can be, but we also saw hearings where ministers from all the governing parties gave good answers and had constructive interchanges with the committees, sometimes even in contentious areas.
That is especially true in hearings where officials from ministries or agencies are providing information, but examples of good in-depth discussions are, almost by definition, far too lengthy to include in a short programme.
Good politics is seldom quick politics.
*RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.
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