When Parliament resumes on the 20th of December, MPs will be subject to to a new set of rules, or Standing Orders.
One of the new rules affects the swearing-in of MPs, and means a member can be ejected from the chamber if they do not take the oath or affirmation “using only the words required by law”.
The member can then be excluded from parliamentary activity until the official oath or affirmation has been taken.
The new rule is a response to several members attempting to swear an alternative oath in the past.
The revised Standing Orders were adopted on the second to last day of the forty-ninth Parliament, after a comprehensive review by the Standing Orders committee.
Video: Hone Harawira’s Alternative Oath
Audio: Tom Frewen and Reesh Lyon look at the parliamentary oath & affirmation – what they are, their history and attempts to alter them (FROM ARCHIVE, 22 July 2011).
