On Wednesdays in the House MPs get a chance to tackle anything they like in what's called the General Debate. It's the weekly all-in, open-slather, debate. The open mic of the political world.
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
The majority of debating time in the House is spent debating legislation. Those debates are restricted to the topic of the bill. If an MP starts talking abut anything other than the topic at hand the Speaker will pull them up and tell them to stick to the knitting.
But the general debate gives MPs a chance to talk about topics that normally wouldn't be allowed. All manner of things. And the rules are slightly relaxed in other ways too, which makes room for a slightly more bare-knuckle tussle.
The taupatpatu whanui (general debate) involves 12 speeches of up to five minutes each, and happens after question time on Wednesdays. The speeches tend to ping-pong across the chamber between government and opposition.
Sometimes MPs choose a subject that's important to them or to their constituents, but most of the time the parties pick a theme for their members to talk about. And they each take up an aspect of it or just repeat the talking point till their time is up.
This week the Opposition chose fuel taxes and living standards as their rallying cry, while Labour mostly spoke about the achievements of the current Government, which also involved living standards.
Only one speech broached the topic of outgoing National MP Jami-Lee Ross, and what it means for the Opposition Leader Simon Bridges, that speech was from Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
You can hear highlights from this week's general debate below.
