Politics

Parliament's Privileges Committee unanimous on agreement MP Jami-Lee Ross broke rules

15:37 pm on 1 September 2020

The Privileges Committee has unanimously agreed that independent MP Jami-Lee Ross broke the rules by mis-using edited parliamentary TV video for political ads.

Jami-Lee Ross Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook

Speaker Trevor Mallard referred the matter to the committee after Ross refused to remove the anti-vaccination video from social media.

The video, which was posted by Ross' Advance NZ party and that of Billy Te Kahika's NZ Public Party, which have merged, included edited Parliamentary footage of an exchange between government minister Megan Woods and National's Erica Stanford.

Committee chair David Parker said they agreed that the "clipped video was deliberately misleading" and should be taken down.

"It makes it look like Parliament had some plan for compulsory vaccination which was not what the debate was about.

"What the Speaker chooses to do now that we've affirmed that he was right... is up to the Speaker," he said.

Parker said with Parliament about to be dissolved, any further steps would be for the next Privileges Committee to determine.