Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Be warned

Tariana Turia has written a column about unparliamentary behaviour. It contains an interesting observation;

It would appear that some politicians do not reserve rudeness just to themselves in the House, they also subject the public to it in very direct ways.

For the behaviour in select committees, particularly when submissions are being heard from the public - is also far from desirable. There have been too many experiences of members of the public presenting their views at select committee, and being greeted with sarcastic remarks, offensive gesticulations, and a general level of rudeness which would certainly deter anyone from participating in the democratic process.


Tariana has sat on 4 different select committees.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure I understand the title of this post, what exactly are you warning us about? The fact that she is telling us something we already know perhaps?

Lindsay Mitchell said...

I think she is telling people something they may not know. For anyone preparing to make an oral submission it is better to be forewarned.