One of Speaker-elect Adrian Rurawhe's first moves in the role has been to shut down new independent MP Dr Gaurav Sharma after the rebel MP tried to speak about his recent experiences.
Contributions in the House on Wednesday afternoon were meant to be about Rurawhe's election to the role, but after quickly congratulating the Speaker-elect, Dr Sharma moved to start talking about issues he had previously had.
"When you gave your speech, it was really refreshing to hear about fairness, about bringing value to the House and changing some of the issues that are present in the House, it almost seems like you should be an independent rather than aligned with any side," he said.
"Some of the people today mentioned about integrity, transparency in these speeches. I just want to say two weeks ago I contacted the former Speaker [Trevor Mallard] and I went to talk to him about some of the issues that I was having and whether I could get legal support in my case.
"The Speaker said, well if you raise anything about a Labour colleague, any challenges, it would be the end of your career."
Mallard was sitting just two seats over from Dr Sharma. The rebel MP acknowledged him when making his unsubstantiated claims.
With other MPs interjecting, Rurawhe stood up and told Dr Sharma "that is not the purpose of this debate".
"You are raising issues that this House is not dealing with at this moment," the Speaker-elect said.
Rurawhe said he would interrupt Dr Sharma again if he went off track and said speeches were "about the newly elected Speaker". MPs clapped as Rurawhe spoke.
Dr Sharma replied saying he hopes Rurawhe is neutral and shows fairness in the House.
The Hamilton West MP has spent recent days alleging widespread bullying within Labour, that the Prime Minister is involved in a cover-up and that the party teachs MP how to get around freedom of information laws. However, he is yet to provide evidence to back up his claims.
He was expelled on Tuesday after days of drip-feeding information to the media. Labour MPs say he hasn't followed proper process and his behaviour, including releasing details of private conversations, has breached colleagues' trust and brought the party into disrepute.
All of his claims have been rejected by Labour, which say the issue has arisen from Dr Sharma rejecting interventions Parliamentary Service and the Whips made when issues arose with staff in his office.
Dr Sharma wants an independent investigation into his complaints as well as concerns raised by others about him. But Labour says the threshold for such an inquiry hasn't been hit.
Following his expulsion on Tuesday morning, Dr Sharma was asked whether he wants to stay on as an independent MP or whether he will resign, forcing a by-election in Hamilton West.
"It's not a decision I want to hurry either way. Obviously my constituents will have stuff to say about it. I've obviously been hearing from them in the last few days. So that's not something that I'm going to rush either way."
The Prime Minister could also write to the Speaker asking for the waka-jumping legislation to be triggered, booting Dr Sharma out of Parliament.
However, Jacinda Ardern has signalled it is unlikely she will do that.
"I think where possible, it's best to avoid [by-elections] because it does cause unnecessary disruption and focus of resource into contest outside of an election cycle and it does it does come at a cost," Ardern said on Tuesday.
On top of expelling Dr Sharma from the Labour caucus, MPs also voted to refer his actions to the wider party. President Claire Szabó said its top council will soon meet and decide whether to investigate. He could end up being censured or expelled from the party.
