Many people have composed poems and songs about Parliament and its members, from reporters through to politicians. Hear or read their creative insights.
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Wellington’s first Parliament Buildings were made of wood … which soon rotted. A member of Parliament once called attention to this by waving some rotten wood in the debating chamber.
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This poem mocks H A Ingles, the Government whip who miscounted the number of votes for the Government in 1872.
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There was an obvious hierarchy in the ladies’ gallery throughout the 1800s.
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This song from the 1890s reveals how the press gallery was once an exclusively male domain — as it continued to be until the 1970s.
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Relations between Parliament and journalists were tense when this poem was published in 1898.
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This song, probably composed around the 1911 election, shows that public scepticism of politicians is nothing new.
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Paddy Blanchfield, who represented Westland in the 1960s and 1970s, was known as the ‘Bard of the Coast’. He composed this poem when he retired in 1978.
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