Kōrero: Parliament

Showing the customary reluctance, newly elected Speaker Peter Tapsell is escorted to his chair by fellow members of Parliament (top), and later presides over the House (bottom). Tapsell, who won the Eastern Māori seat for Labour in 1981, became speaker under a National government in 1993. As well as being the first Māori speaker of the House, he was the first speaker from the opposition since the 1920s. A traditionalist who upheld standards of behaviour and dress in Parliament, he was always impeccably attired, with a flower in his lapel.