Three New Zealand MPs have been temporarily suspended from parliament for performing a haka during a vote on a controversial bill, in what is believed to be the harshest penalty ever issued to parliamentarians. The co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori (the Māori Party), Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and the party's youngest member, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, performed the traditional Māori dance during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill in November.
The video of the protest, which included Maipi-Clarke tearing up a copy of the bill, went viral, accumulating hundreds of millions of views. The bill sought to reinterpret the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document between Māori tribes and the British Crown, and had sparked widespread alarm and the largest ever protest over Māori rights. The privileges committee recommended suspending Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi for three weeks and Maipi-Clarke for seven days, stating their actions could have intimidated other legislators and amounted to contempt of parliament.
The committee's report, released on Wednesday, noted that while haka have been performed in parliament before, the timing and manner of this one—which interrupted voting—was a serious matter. Attorney-General Judith Collins, who chaired the committee, described it as the toughest punishment ever handed out and the worst incident she had seen in 23 years. The suspensions are expected to be confirmed by a vote of all lawmakers on Tuesday, and the three MPs will not receive their salaries during the period.
Te Pāti Māori condemned the suspensions as the worst punishment ever handed down, stating that when indigenous people resist, colonial powers reach for maximum penalties. The opposition Labour Party agreed the conduct was contemptuous but felt the penalties were unduly severe, suggesting one to two days would be more appropriate. The Green Party opposed the suspensions entirely, calling them completely out of proportion and expressing concern that Te Pāti Māori voters would lack representation during the budget debate.
