Deal done after shambles

The prime minister stands by the concessions the Government gave National during a facepalm moment on the first day in the House as Labour avoided a vote on its nomination for Speaker, Trevor Mallard.

Both Jacinda Ardern and Leader of the House Chris Hipkins said they had the numbers to make Mallard the Speaker of the House, but they wanted him elected unopposed, which wouldn’t have happened if they’d had a vote.

Instead the Government had to cave to the Opposition’s demands after National realised a number of government MPs were missing and declared it had an ‘‘assumed majority’’ and would force a vote.

That meant National got its wish for more MPs on select committees – Hipkins did a deal with National’s shadow Leader of the House Simon Bridges to increase the number from 96 to 109.

National and Labour have been clashing for days over the Government’s plans to cut opposition MPs out of select committees.

A proposal to reduce the number to 96 would have meant 11 National MPs would miss out, which National said undermined their ability to hold the Government to account.

Seeing an opportunity to force Hipkins’ hand, Bridges threatened a vote, which Hipkins wasn’t expecting.

While the Government had the numbers, it would have been a close vote as a number of MPs had been absent for their swearing in ceremony earlier in the day.

Hipkins said all the MPs who weren’t in the House for their swearing in and the Speaker vote had approved leave from Parliament. He said it would have been a ‘‘courtesy’’ for Bridges to tell him ahead of Tuesday that National planned to oppose the Speaker nomination.

In future he planned to get a specific assurance from National on similar matters, saying he would have preferred to avoid such ‘‘silly games’’.

Hipkins said New Zealanders deserved better than what played out in the House but it was important to get on with business, rather than ‘‘antics’’ like those seen yesterday.

National had been pushing for 120 seats on select committees and when Bridges could see the ‘‘situation evolving and who was away’’ from Parliament he decided to bring it to Hipkins’ attention right as the Speaker nomination was being heard.

‘‘It was a disorganised Government that we saw today that didn’t know its numbers, which meant we were able to get what we thought was important and what is important for New Zealanders,’’ Bridges said. ‘‘I hope the new Government has learnt a lesson and will pick up its act.’’

Ardern said she could only control the way the Government conducted itself in the House, not the Opposition.

She maintains Labour didn’t ‘‘buckle’’ on select committee numbers and there was always going to be a conversation about how many MPs they had – however, the deal has now been done.

The shambles began when Labour MP Ruth Dyson rose to nominate Mallard for the Speaker role. Bridges immediately raised a point of order asking for clarification about whether absent MPs, who hadn’t been sworn in yesterday morning, had a vote on the Speaker role.

As the House took a break to work out the order, Bridges taunted the Government with shouts of ‘‘where’s Winston when you need him?’’.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Trade Minister David Parker have both already left for APEC in Vietnam, and several other Government MPs, including Labour’s Poto Williams and Priyanca Radhakrishnan and the Greens’ Gareth Hughes, were also absent.

That along with Labour not being so sure of their numbers meant National could ‘‘assume the majority’’, leader Bill English said.

‘‘It was unprecedented. I’ve never seen that on the day of electing a Speaker where the proceedings of Parliament were disrupted.’’