National’s shadow Leader of the House Chris Bishop rose to make a point of order, saying the Speaker was essentially accusing National’s front bench of misogyny but had ignored Labour MP Peeni Henare making “reow” noises while National MP Erica Stanford asked a question on Tuesday. (Labour whip Kieran McAnulty defended that performance by saying it related to the topic of discussion being
The Lion King.)
Speaker Trevor Mallard. “Yesterday I note Peeni Henare essentially made an animal noise at a female member of the National Party and it essentially went unpunished,” Bishop said. Mallard said he hadn’t heard the animal noise on Tuesday, but he had sanctioned Labour for the out-of-order noise by giving an extra question to the National Party.