Analysis: Another ritual took place at Parliament today — the Speech from the Throne. 1News political reporter Felix Desmarais was in the room.
A wise woman once said: "Can't read my, can't read my, no, you can't read my poker face."
But most Green MPs didn't even bother with that as Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro gave the Speech from the Throne today, making an otherwise relatively dry proceeding borderline comical.
The speech is part of the proceedings for Parliament's state opening, which follows yesterday's commission opening. The speech is essentially written by the government of the day and simply delivered by the Governor-General.
It exists to lay out the legislative intentions of the incoming government. So the new government's plan, basically.
And the Greens did not like it. Particularly MPs Chlöe Swarbrick and Golriz Ghahraman.
The former put her head in her hands as the Governor-General mentioned "the costly income insurance scheme" and furrowed her brow as Dame Cindy mentioned "the Auckland's Light Rail project and Let's Get Wellington Moving".
Afterwards, asked about her reactions, Swarbrick told 1News: "Everyone who knows me, and what I do in politics, knows I'm not particularly renowned for a poker face.
"You're never going to have to guess what I am thinking or feeling."
Swarbrick said she found "some of the rhetoric pretty dismal, and actually quite despicable and disgusting".
"In a word, it was cooked."
Ghahraman said she thought "frankly, the prime minister should be ashamed".
The Greens' justice spokesperson said many of the Government's policies in that area were "things that have been tried before and failed".
"We need our leadership to show the courage, that it will take, to commit to justice policy that will actually work to keep communities safe, but also to rehabilitate."
It was put to Ghahraman that some might view the Greens' reactions to the Government's work plan as being poor losers unable to accept the election result.
She said democracy was built on having a strong opposition.
"We will continue to feel that disappointment on behalf of our communities and bring the solutions that New Zealand really needs, as we work in opposition."
What was perhaps surprising though is that nothing in the Speech from the Throne would be a shock to anyone who followed the election campaign and the coalition announcements.
Perhaps better poker faces were from old foes Winston Peters and David Seymour, who sat together on the other side of the room.
There wasn't a lot of interaction between them — none witnessed by this reporter — though Seymour did take a moment to clean the lens of his phone with the end of his tie in a perhaps drier moment during the speech.
Not to be left out on the left though — honourable mentions go to Labour MPs Arena Williams, Priyanca Radhakrishnan and Rachel Boyack for strong facial reactions to the Government's agenda.
Just as well it's Parliament, not poker.
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