New Zealand First leader Winston Peters again took centre stage at Parliament yesterday and is likely to be the main attraction when the House resumes this afternoon.
Mr Peters and Act New Zealand leader Rodney Hide traded point-of-order after point-of-order during question time as Mr Hide sought to ask a question about some possible donations made to either Mr Peters or NZ First.
Mr Hide attempted to ask his question seven times, but each time Mr Peters raised a point of order, claiming the matter on which Mr Hide was speaking was before the courts and therefore sub judice.
Speaker Margaret Wilson ruled she had to take the "honourable member's word" that the matter was before the courts and ordered Mr Hide to ask the substance of his question without referring to those matters.
Mr Hide continued to assert there were no matters before the courts and he had every right to ask his question.
But each time he did, Mr Peters rose to his feet with a point of order, insisting the question was not asked.
The Act leader, showing obvious frustration, continued to object and continued to attempt asking his questions, without any luck.
National Party MP Gerry Brownlee, a member of Parliament's standing orders committee, asked Ms Wilson that if it was the case that she had to accept the "honourable member's word", which honourable member was she accepting the word of, when Mr Hide insisted there were no matters before the court and Mr Peters insisted there were.
But Ms Wilson was having none of that and ruled firmly in favour of Mr Peters.
She was backed up by Leader of the House Michael Cullen, defending her right to accept the word of Mr Peters and referring the House to a ruling which he said was designed to protect the courts from Parliament raising issues that could later be detrimental to a court case.
Ms Wilson eventually asked Mr Hide to leave the debating chamber, which he at first refused to do without being heard.
Ms Wilson asked Mr Hide to consider carefully his actions and, eventually, Mr Hide left the chamber.
During, and immediately after, Mr Hide's departure, Mr Peters sat back with his characteristic smile in place.
Not content to let the matter lie, Mr Brownlee asked Prime Minister Helen Clark whether she continued to accept the assurances of Mr Peters, to which she replied she would unless something arose out of a privileges committee investigation.
Dr Cullen could be forgiven for throwing his support behind Ms Wilson, because much is at stake for Labour this week.
The Government needs the support of Mr Peters for its controversial emissions trading scheme and NZ First is due to make its announcement today on whether it will follow the lead of the Green Party yesterday.
Without the support of NZ First, the scheme would be dead and a cornerstone of the Clark Government's policy going into the election defeated.
That would leave National crowing all the way to the election.
Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons looked anything but happy announcing her party's support of the legislation.
The Green MPs appeared not united behind the decision.
Ms Fitzsimons would only say a consensus was reached, not that MPs were happy.
The emissions trading scheme was negotiated under an agreement of no legislative surprises, and with the provision that each of the three parties saw what the other presented.
The Greens agreed to support the legislation just after noon yesterday on the assumption NZ First would not introduce anything new out of "left field".
If something new arose, there was no deal.
Her attempts to talk to NZ First during the three-party negotiations on the scheme had been unsuccessful, leaving Mr Peters to again play the pivotal role on an issue of national importance.
Political editor Dene Mackenzie is in Wellington this week.
