Three Māori MPs have been suspended over a haka protest in New Zealand’s Parliament.
The performance disrupted a vote on the controversial ‘Treaty Principles Bill’ in November.
Te Pāti Māori (TPM) MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has been suspended for seven days for her role in initiating the protest.
Her party's co-leaders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, have been handed 21-day bans.
The suspensions are the country’s longest parliamentary bans on record.
Context
The ‘Treaty Principles Bill’ sought to change how NZ’s founding document, a 19th Century Treaty between Britain and Māori people, was legally interpreted.
Māori leaders argued the proposal was an attack on the community’s rights.
Thousands participated in a protest march across NZ’s North Island, which ended in Wellington with a demonstration outside Parliament in November.
Haka
While voting for the bill was happening inside Parliament, Maipi-Clarke led a haka to interrupt the process. She was suspended from Parliament for 24 hours.
At the time, House Speaker described Maipi-Clarke’s conduct as “appallingly disrespectful”.
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A Parliamentary Committee has since accused her, along with TPM co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, of “contempt of the House” — for disrupting a vote, not for the haka itself.
A majority of MPs rejected the Treaty Principles Bill in April.
Suspension
Last month, the Committee recommended all three MPs be suspended without pay.
Parliament has now accepted its recommendation to suspend the party co-leaders for 21 days, and Maipi-Clarke for seven days.
The suspensions are the longest temporary bans handed down in NZ Parliamentary history.
The previous record was a three-day suspension.
Responding to the decision, TPM said, “Parliament has sent a message to our mokopuna [young people] that their Māori identity is a threat to New Zealand’s democracy.”
“We reject the mischaracterisation of our haka as contempt and intimidation. Our MPs acted with integrity,” it said.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters criticised TPM in a post to X, saying the party doesn’t “represent Māori”.
“The Māori Party only achieved 3% of the vote. The vast majority of Māori did not vote for them,” Peters wrote.
