Prime Minister John Key announced today his Government would establish a House of Lords.
The Prime Minister said he was delighted to reinstate the Upper House of the New Zealand Parliament which was disestablished 58 years ago by the National Government of Prime Minister Sidney Holland.
“It’s about recognising hereditary excellence. This is a real celebration of success and I am confident New Zealanders will embrace it” said Mr Key.
The move follows on the heels of the National Government bringing back Knights and Dames, and the Queen’s Counsel.
Mr Key said the reinstatement of Parliament’s upper house, to be called the House of Lords, would be accompanied by the introduction of hereditary peerages, the first of which would be announced in the New Year’s Honours.
“It’s, um, a complex thing, excellence. But I think most Kiwis recognise that success runs in families. And you know, why shouldn’t we tap into that for the good of New Zealand?”
The Prime Minister said he hoped to have the new House of Lords up and running by the opening of the next Parliament. The usual rituals for Parliament’s opening would be accompanied by mediaeval jousting on the forecourt.
Oh dear Trev, Still the bully eh?
@ emelsee – That’s humour among friends fyi.
I thought you tagged this with humour? Where’s the humour?
[Charlotte, this is off topic so I have removed it but will email a response to you directly - PT]
I seem to recall that Bolger briefly toyed with the idea of an upper house, primarily because there was a school of thought at the time that the new MMP system would be inherently unstable and an upper house would balance that out. The idea was ridiculed and dropped. I suspect the real driver behind the idea was the problem of maintaining the power of the executive over the legislature under MMP. Hasn’t worked out that way, the executive is still fully in charge.
Will the Labour team support a move to allow Te Reo equivalents (say, Ta and Kahurangi) as appellations, though? I’m presently drafting a Member’s Bill which would do so.
I am also suggesting the titular titles be modernised to address some of the dscriminatory quirks:
- Allowing Dames to receive the accolade of Knighthood (presently only men – not women – are “dubbed” on the shoulders).
- For all new honours, abolishing the “courtesy title” for wives of Knights (presently, only wives who take the same name as their husband may use “Lady X”; husbands of Dames are not accorded any courtesy title; same-sex and opposite-sex civil union or de facto partners are not entitled to use the title).
I say old chap. Will there be a jolly spot for my friend Helen or Annette? I mean these days surely half or more of the Lords should be Lordesses? I hope Sir John Key makes room for the little ladies or by golly. The old girl will get cross and we don’t want that do we now!!
@ Dean Knight – Interesting idea. I’m not opposed to titular honours per se. I’m against the symbolism of honours inherited from the British class system and the inequality that represents. I’m certainly open to considering your bill and I’m pretty sure colleagues would be too.
“…the older persons caucus has just had a phone conference and decided to ask you if you can list those aged 55+”
There are simply too many. The baby boomers control everything didn’t you know.
I didn’t know we had a senior citizens caucus though – quite a revelation.
Dean- you could also institute a courtesy title for men and mandate it in the same manner for husbands and male civil union partners. Though I have no idea what comes between “Mr.” and “Sir”- gentleman sounds wrong, and technically the male equivalent of Lady is Lord. o_O
I think the thing that most people got worked up about with the change of systems was that we dropped the title, and given I’m not absolutely opposed to titular honours, an independent New Zealand system (again) sounds like a good idea.
Chippie – Phil and Annie want to see you at 10.15.
So Lord Burns’ title would be a real one and i suppose it would be Baroness Clare of Stare.
Are you looking for a response Trevor? I don’t do titles. I’ve got Irish peasant (rebellious) ancestry and proud of it.
LOL. Someone’s in trouble.
Ooh, when you’re done with him you’ll post the video on Youtube, right?
Great column by Brian Rudman in the Herald this morning: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10588672
I’ve now drafted and posted a moderisation Bill:
http://www.laws179.co.nz/2009/08/new-zealand-order-of-merit.html