This week Pakuranga Rotary was privileged to have Simeon Brown introduce David Carter, the Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives as our speaker. The Speaker is elected by members of the House and David has held the role since 2013, following on from Dr. Lockwood Smith.
David hails from a family originally from Yorkshire (where his father had a strong interest in local politics), he obtained a Bachelor of Agr. Science at Lincoln University and developed a strong desire to advance Agriculture within New Zealand.
Twelve months before the retirement of Lockwood Smith, David was approached about the Speaker’s role and initially. He confided that initially, he was not sure whether that was a vote of confidence in his management of portfolios to date or not. Obviously, the question was unfounded, and David has made a success of his role as speaker. On Monday, we were fortunate to see another, less formal side to him.
We were told that chairing question time in Parliament was not necessarily his greatest challenge. He grew to recognise the tricks various members played and managed to keep the time for questions to a respectable 1 – 1.25 hours during which time he could facilitate the 12 written questions that are typically forwarded to him by 11:00am on the day. His “Bibles” for use in this role are standing orders and speaker’s rulings.
His greatest challenge it seems is his requirement to remain A-political. As such he does not attend Caucus meetings or participate in National Party planning. David says it can be a lonely role.
The Speaker of the House is essentially the Landlord of the House and he chairs the Standing Orders committee, the Business Committee and the Officers of Parliament Committee. This includes the executive wing, the library, premises, Commissioner of the Environment and Auditor General. New Zealand has an enviable reputation for an open and accessible democracy however as is an increasing trend, emphasis on security is growing.
As Minister for Parliamentary Services, David effectively employs in the order of 400 people including the 3 or 4 support staff a Member of Parliament may have in his electorate. He values his international hosting duties both internal and external and tries to encourage participation for reasons of professional development as opposed to “junkets” for retiring members.
There were no real crystal ball predictions for the upcoming election other than it was going to be a very close race. Given the strongest performing economy since his introduction to Parliament and the length of time National has been in Government, he felt that there was a risk of National voter complacency in the face of an enlivening of new voters who are likely to vote because of the new Labour leadership.
David was thanked for his contribution by Simeon Brown.