As Swarbrick came to the end of her contribution, she challenged coalition MPs to back her member’s bill allowing New Zealand to apply sanctions on Israel.

“If we find six of 68 government MPs with a spine, we can stand on the right side of history,” Swarbrick said.

Almost immediately, Brownlee condemned the remark as “completely unacceptable” and demanded she “withdraw it and apologise”.

Swarbrick shot back a curt - “no” - prompting Brownlee to order her out of the chamber for the remainder of the week.

“Happily,” Swarbrick said, as she rose to leave.

Green Party whip Ricardo Menéndez March later stood to question the severity of punishment, saying Parliament’s rules suggested Swarbrick should be barred for no more than a day.