Water cooler chat: Parliament’s General Debate

From birthday messages, to lamenting New Zealand cultural icons, the General Debate enables MPs to climb onto the soapbox and yarn about whatever's on their mind.

Every sitting Wednesday after Question Time, Parliament holds the General Debate. The terminology Parliament uses for the debate's subject, is 'miscellaneous business'.

This roughly translates to... whatever is on a member's mind - within reason. Obviously it's inferred that kōrero should be relevant to the role of being an MP, though on occasion this inference is questionable.

The core purpose of the General Debate is to allow members to discuss issues that fall outside the more defined parameters of legislative debate.

This could take the form of a reflection on a recent event in the news, expressing condolences, celebrating successes, replies to earlier questions, discussion of committee reports, and sometimes just waffling on about any old thing.

This week's General Debate had a typically diverse medley of themes across each of the twelve speeches. You can read the full Hansard transcript here.

Labour's Phil Twyford used his time to suggest the Government take a firmer stance on issues relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Foreign policy was also the topic of NZ First MP Jenny Marcroft's kōrero, in which the House was given a 'show and tell'; she even had props. Her "helper" (Mark Patterson seated next to her), provided her with a map of the Pacific, which she then used to demonstrate where in the region Shane Jones and Winston Peters had gone or given money to.

For an electorate MP, the General Debate is a useful platform to raise issues from your constituency. MPs often take this opportunity to boast about their electorate too. There was a lot of this on Wednesday.

It's also an effective way of conveying the impact of recent government policy on the communities the MP represents. If you're an opposition MP, you might offer your observations from somewhere back-home where government policy is generally unpopular. Meanwhile, a government MP may share an anecdote from Joe Bloggs who says life has gotten easier under the current administration.

Having a bit more wriggle room to talk about anything, means the General Debate tends to invoke some of parliament's more peculiar nuggets of oratory too. And bring out the human in the politician.

This week, that took the forms of a birthday message, and a touching tribute to New Zealand Music Legend, Martin Phillips. Listen to the audio above for more.

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Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details