Three New Zealand MPs are set to be suspended after performing a haka in Parliament in protest of a controversial bill.
The ‘Treaty Principles Bill’ would have changed how the country’s founding document, a 19th Century Treaty between Britain and Māori people, is legally interpreted. A majority of MPs voted it down last month.
A committee has reviewed the conduct of three of the Māori MPs who performed the Haka, and has recommended unpaid suspensions of up to 21 days.
Parliament is expected to confirm the suspensions next week.
First: the bill
In 1840, English officials and more than 500 Māori leaders signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi, or the Treaty of Waitangi.
Māori leaders signed a Māori version of the treaty and English representatives signed the English version. Māori leaders were not told that the English believed the Treaty meant they had signed away control of the country, leading to decades of conflict.
The ACT Party, part of the coalition government, proposed a bill to change how the treaty is legally interpreted last year.
Protest
Māori leaders argued it was an attack on the community’s rights.
Protesters walked the length of NZ’s North Island, ending in a demonstration outside Parliament in the capital city, Wellington.
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In November, an MP for Te Pāti Māori (TPM), Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, interrupted voting on the bill with a haka.
Suspension
Following the haka, the House Speaker suspended Maipi-Clarke for 24 hours, describing her conduct as “appallingly disrespectful”.
A Parliamentary Committee has since accused her, along with TPM co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, of “contempt of the House”. The committee said the haka’s timing to disrupt a vote displayed “contempt”, not the haka itself.
Parliament is expected to accept its recommendations that the co-leaders are suspended for 21 days and Maipi-Clarke is suspended for seven days, both without pay.
Reaction
Te Pāti Māori has condemned the measure.
“This is the most severe punishment handed down in our history,” the party said in a statement.
It noted the longest previous suspension was three days. The MPs will miss the debate on NZ’s upcoming federal Budget.
In a lengthy post to social media, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said the House of Representatives “has become a House of Chaos.”
