For years, Act MPs have worn their branded pins in the house. But after bickering about stickers on Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s laptop last week escalated, the ban on displaying or wearing party logos has been reinforced.

It is almost unimaginable to consider David Seymour, dressed in a suit and pink glossy tie, without that little rectangle pin on his lapel. It’s like imagining a face without a nose, or a dog without fur, but it might be something we have to get used to. It will not be only his lapel stripped of the $5 pin, but the lapels of all the Act MPs in the house – at least while they’re in there.

“There are people displaying party logos at the moment,” said speaker Gerry Brownlee during question time on Wednesday. “My advice is that they should remove those logos, in any form that they might have them.” He then stopped Act MP Todd Stephenson from asking the second question – until he “got rid of the logo”. Stephenson didn’t, instead saying that Trevor Mallard, speaker in the previous parliament until 2022, had made a ruling to exempt the pins from his earlier party logo ban. This did not fly. “I’ve made a ruling, a new one, yesterday,” said Brownlee. “Remove the pin.”

If you’re wondering why party logos are banned in the first place, it all began with boxes. As this exchange from 2009 details, once upon a time, party logos were allowed to be displayed on said boxes (which members often carry to their desks, filled with files and whatnot), but slogans were not. The speaker at the time, Lockwood Smith, hated that rule – “I believe that even party logos being displayed in this house is demeaning” – but had to put up with it as he did not have the backing from the business committee, which decides how parliamentary business is run, to change it.

Fast forward to 2019 and there was a new speaker in town, Trevor Mallard, who despite defending his and fellow Labour MPs’ slogan-bearing boxes to Smith a decade earlier, had become a purist. “I want to make a very brief comment and acknowledge the quality of debate and the considerable decorum that there has been in the house over the last two days,” Mallard said in parliament on March 20, 2019. “That’s mainly a result of the behaviour of members and of their speeches, but there has been an additional factor, which has been absolutely evident to me, and that is that this house looks like it has decorum because it is not covered in boxes with party labels on them.

“I am therefore ruling, from now on, boxes in party colours with labels will be left in members’ benches and not put on top.”

A couple of months later, during a debate on tax policy, then education minister Chris Hipkins appeared to notice that Act MPs were sporting their new lapel pins. He raised a point of order, mentioned Mallard’s earlier labels-on-boxes ruling and said, without any obvious evidence, that he believed previous speakers had banned MPs from wearing party branding in the chamber. Hipkins asked Mallard if he continued to uphold this ruling. “Yes,” said Mallard, but hesitated – looking over at Seymour and sighing. “That,” he said, eyeing up the little pin, “is not at the point that I think…” In the excitement Seymour stood up and said “I’d like clarity”, pointing at the pin on his lapel. “Aw, no,” said Mallard, “that’s all right.” And so the pins have been exempt. They’ve mostly flown under the radar since then, though anyone can buy one, with the description promising that it “sets you apart as a lover of freedom on sight”. Still, they’ve not yet caught on as a fashion trend beyond Act MPs (11 people).

Mallard wasn’t so forgiving in 2021, when face masks became the accessory du jour for MPs and he ruled that they shouldn’t display political logos. “It’s long been the rulings of speakers in this house that political logos are not used as part of this house,” he said, which was not exactly true but had by that stage become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Since then, the chamber has remained blissfully free of petty logo squabbles – until last week, that is. During debate on the Māori wards bill, Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was reading speech notes from her laptop when National MP James Meager raised a point of order. He stood up in the back benches to say, “The member has political party logos on the back of her laptop and that is not allowed on the surface of the table in the house.” Maipi-Clarke scrambled to cover her laptop with papers, saying, “it just says Māori!” Technically Meager was correct – the sticker was a Te Pāti Māori logo – subtle in white on a silver laptop. This was the beginning of the end for the Act lapel pins, as it ignited multiple MPs to raise points of order.

It was Labour MP Duncan Webb who suggested that if Act MPs’ lapel pins were allowed, so too should Maipi-Clarke’s sticker be, pointing out the point of order wasn’t so much about the sticker but instead an attempt to “intervene and interrupt her as she speaks”. 

Andrew Geddis, constitutional law expert at the University of Otago, says that “behaviour such as this in the house is part of the reason why MPs are held in such contempt”. It’s “silly game playing” which may seem meaningful to those in parliament but is read as “petty and pointless” to anyone outside of it. “It undermines the truly meaningful moments in the house,” he says, citing last week’s debate on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. We could also consider the speech Maipi-Clarke was making on the bill – which passed its third reading on Tuesday – that will require many councils to hold referendums if they have Māori wards. While her laptop stickers have been splashed across media, her words have not. “Frankly,” says Geddis, “I’m with Shakespeare on this … a pox on both your houses.”

On Tuesday, the business committee discussed the matter. It was decided that the ban of party branding be extended to all logos – including tiny pins. Brownlee sent the message through the whips, saying at question time on Wednesday, “I reinforced with whips and others who were at the business committee that the display of party logos in the house in any form is not a permitted activity and hasn’t been for some time.” 

Stephenson, wanting to ask that second question, eventually removed his pin. But because other Act Party members refused to, Brownlee skipped him, going into question three. Later, Green MP Kahurangi Carter attempted to ask children’s minister and Act MP Karen Chhour about cuts to Oranga Tamariki. Her pin was still on – “you’re not answering it wearing the badge. Simple as that,” said Brownlee. Nor did he allow a pinned Seymour to respond. “If Act members want to stand up displaying their party badge, they’re not going to be recognised.” When Brownlee stood firm after pushback from National’s Chris Bishop, National MP and social development minister Louise Upston responded to Carter’s questions instead. 

David Seymour and Karen Chhour chose to wear their pins over speaking, but they can’t choose fashion over an essential part of their jobs for ever. The Act Party’s online shop is set to lose its most loyal customer base. 

– Additional reporting, Alice Neville