New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key was ordered to leave a debate in parliament today, in a rare move by the speaker of the house.

Key had been answering a question from Green Party co-leader James Shaw on why he was refusing to apologise to the charities Greenpeace, the Red Cross and Amnesty International after linking them to foreign trusts named in the leaked Panama Papers.

Key continued to address the chamber when Parliamentary speaker David Carter - who moderates parliamentary debates - stood to his feet.

He told Key to resume his seat and repeatedly called for order before ordering him to leave the debating chamber. Carter said Key had been given fair warning after a similar incident occurred the previous day.

“When I stand to my feet and call for order, he is to be treated no differently to any other member of this House.

“Obviously I just didn’t see him, didn’t hear him, I was in the middle of an answer,” Key was quoted as saying after leaving the chamber. It was the first time he had ever been ordered out of a debate as premier.

Key had told parliament the previous day that the charities were beneficiaries of trusts named in a database released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists based on a massive leak of files from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.

The charities were in fact the victims of an earlier scam where they were named as beneficiaries of foreign trusts in order to hide the identities of the true beneficiaries.

- dpa