Staff and spectators: Watching Parliament
The galleries above the debating chamber. View as panorama.
The public has always had the right to watch Parliament go about its business. But where the public has sat, how they should behave ― and who formed the public ― have been debated over time. For many years, the public seating area or gallery was called the strangers' gallery. Neither elected representatives nor officials, members of the public were visitors or strangers to the House, there on sufferance and liable to be removed if MPs wished it. From the 1870s, the public gallery has been a purpose-built area partially ringing the chamber upstairs from which people can see down onto the floor of the House.
When Parliament met in Auckland, women and men sat together in a specially marked off area of the chamber, but in 1864, a separate ladies' gallery was created. Once Parliament moved to Wellington in 1865, a ladies' gallery became an accepted thing, and women and men sat in separate areas until 1945. There was also a Speaker's gallery, where people invited by the Speaker would sit; women had their separate Speaker's gallery until 1972.
Entry to the ladies' and Speaker's galleries was by ticket only ― the rest of the public gallery was first-come, first-served ― and tickets were highly prized, especially if the House promised to be full of action and excitement. All the galleries, but especially the ladies', were an important part of Wellington's social scene.
Ladies only
The well-known 'dandy' Jackson Palmer plays to the ladies' gallery in 1893.
The ladies' gallery was located opposite the Speaker, supposedly not to distract MPs when speaking. At least New Zealand women could sit out in the open. In Britain's House of Commons, women had to sit behind a grille because it was thought their presence would divert members from their proper business.
The position of the ladies' gallery didn't stop politicians playing to the women above, or turning their backs on the Speaker to direct their speeches to the gallery; some MPs signalled to their wives and daughters from the floor of the House, and vice versa. The gallery had its own rules, too. Women could knit and sew, and even today, MPs' spouses retain the long-standing right to knit, sew, embroider and darn.
Hear poem 'In the ladies' gallery' (120k, mp3). See transcript of this poem
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