Unparliamentary Language

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 11th, 2018 - 13 comments
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Parliament’s website has a list of selected terms which, over the years, have been deemed to be “unparliamentary”. It is not, by any measure, an exhaustive list and hasn’t been updated since 2006, but the featured terms do make for fun reading. Some also reflect the times in which they were uttered.

1933

  • Blow-fly minded
  • Financial Frankenstein
  • Shrewd old bird

1936

  • Fungus farmer
  • Pipsqueak
  • Stonewalling

1943

  • Members hated the sight of khaki
  • Retardate worm

1946

  • Clown of the House
  • Idle vapourings of a mind diseased
  • I would cut the honourable gentleman’s throat if I had the chance
  • Quasi-parsonical
  • Skite

1949

  • His brain could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides
  • Hoey
  • Humbugs
  • Hypnotised rabbits

1954

  • Bluebird

1957

  • Kind of animal that gnaws holes
  • Trained seals

1959

  • Kookaburra
  • Member not fit to lick the shoes of the Prime Minister

1963

  • Energy of a tired snail returning home from a funeral
  • Member a vicious woman
  • Sits on his behind

1966

  • Labour Party is dominated by an outside body
  • Shut up yourself, you great ape
  • Snotty nosed little boy
  • You are a cheap little twerp
  • Ridiculous mouse

1969

  • Commo (allowed)
  • Duck shoving
  • Like a snail leaves a slime behind him

1974

  • Scuttles for his political funk hole (allowed)
  • Soft-soaping (allowed)
  • Could go down the Mount Eden sewer and come up cleaner than he went in
  • Dreamed the bill up in the bath
  • Greasy hands
  • Grubby little man
  • Intestinal fortitude
  • Low style
  • Mealy mouthed
  • Slinking off to another part of the House
  • Frustrated warlord

1977

  • John Boy
  • Silly old moo
  • Racist
  • Sober up

1980

  • Ayatollah
  • Ditch the bitch
  • Fascist dictator
  • Heil Zeig
  • Marxist or neo-Marxist
  • Member for Pretoria
  • Merv the Swerve
  • Papanui Parrot
  • Quigley Wiggly
  • The Arapawa Goat

.  .  . “His brain could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides” – hahahahahaha!! “The member for Pretoria” – ouch!

My favourite was Nandor Tanczos’ 29 June, 2000, “drunk in charge of a country”. He was referring then to the hypocrisy of government which was, and still is, fine with liberal laws around alcohol but draconian in its approach to cannabis. Mind you, Nandor Tanczos’ comment wasn’t deemed unparliamentary. Your favourite un/parliamentary one-liner?

 

(NOTE: This work is based on Office of the Clerk/Parliamentary Services’ website content (linked to above) which is licensed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives and/or the Parliamentary Corporation on behalf of Parliamentary Service for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Full licence available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.)

13 comments on “Unparliamentary Language ”

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  1. Stuart Munro 1
    11 July 2018 at 8:18 am

    It would be interesting to collect a series of how the public describe them.

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    11 July 2018 at 8:22 am

    “I would cut the honourable gentleman’s throat if I had the chance”
    I thought, “John Key”, but then read, 1946.

  3. OnceWasTim 3
    11 July 2018 at 8:55 am

    Waheguru. Thank Christ BLiP is back

  4. Puckish Rogue 4
    11 July 2018 at 9:17 am

    “His brain could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides Is probably tied with “Could go down the Mount Eden sewer and come up cleaner than he went in” but there’s something about “Silly old moo” which sounds like something straight out of an old school British situation comedy…easy to imagine Rene describing Edith as a silly old moo cow*

    *Please note I do not in anyway agree with calling women silly old moo cows in this day and age, in fact in any day and age.

    • R.P Mcmurphy 4.1
      11 July 2018 at 8:31 pm

      a silly person is a silly person be they man or woman. you pussy whipped pusillanimous piece of pulverised pulchritude!

  5. mac1 5
    11 July 2018 at 9:39 am

    Speaker Ron Algie rebuked a constant interjector in the House. “Quiet, man, you’re an impediment in other people’s speech!”

    Winston Peters in 1996 rebuked an interjector saying he did not want to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. Peters recycled this a few weeks ago at the expense of Simon Bridges at Question Time.

  6. mary_a 6
    11 July 2018 at 10:34 am

    “Like a snail leaves a slime behind him …” 1969.

    Such incredible foresight to foresee John Key as PM well into the future!

  7. Zack Brando 7
    11 July 2018 at 12:13 pm

    Nicky Wagner is probably the b****. Deborah Russell just pontificates badly in the style of Rachel Maddow.

  8. feijoa 8
    11 July 2018 at 2:28 pm

    Great to see you back Blip. This makes a refreshing change from John key’s lies!!

  9. Draco T Bastard 9
    11 July 2018 at 3:10 pm

    Intestinal fortitude

    Would that make John Key’s outburst of ‘Get some guts’ be unparliamentary?

  10. SPC 10
    11 July 2018 at 4:21 pm

    Petulant petticoat not yet used?

    Sounds appropriate for the westie who cut the TIA and lorded it over her former peers as minister.