NZ Maori MPs banned from parliament in historic sanction

Maori Party co-leaders and NZ’s youngest MP face the harshest punishment in parliament’s history for performing a haka in the chamber.

Maori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi (L) and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer speak to reporters. Picture: Getty Images.

Three of New Zealand’s leading Maori MPs have been banned from parliament in the harshest ever punishment in the country’s history.

Maori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have been suspended for 21 days, and parliament’s youngest member, 22-year-old Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has a seven day ban for performing an “intimidating” haka in parliament.

Previously, the longest suspension in the parliament’s 171-year history was three sitting days - and that was 40 years ago.

The trio were sanctioned for performing the haka - the Maori war dance - during the reading of a contentious race relations bill.

Ms Maipi-Clarke derailed parliament in November when she ripped a copy of the Treaty Principles Bill in half while performing the haka, before her party leaders joined her.

The bill, originally proposed by ACT leader David Seymour is perceived by many as a threat to the indigenous Maori and detrimental to the country’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi. Last year it led to countrywide protests that ended at parliament in Wellington before the Maori Party protest haka.

During the fiery debate over the MPs’ fate on Thursday, New Zealand’s acting prime minister Winston Peters - himself a Maori - was forced to apologise for deriding Mr Waititi’s face tattoo - or moko as a “scribble.”

Describing Mr Waititi and his Maori Party MPs as a “bunch of extremists,” he called Mr Waititi someone “with scribbles on his face.”

After Mr Peters said the Maori Party wanted anarchy and had lost the support of the Maori world Mr Waititi asked him where his Maori voters were. Mr Peters, a Maori, replied: “The one that is shouting down there with scribbles on his face”.

The description is seen as deeply disparaging to the Maori, who believe their moko are a sacred part of their culture – and their heredity.

The parliament’s speaker demanded Mr Peters apologise.

The three MPs have been defiant over their haka. Ms Maipi-Clarke said her actions had reverberated around the world and suggested this was why parliament wanted her and her party leaders punished.

Describing the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill as “dishonourable,” she said: “We will never be silenced and we will never be lost.”

During the debate, Mr Waititi held up a noose, saying those in power had “traded the noose for legislation”.

“We will not be silenced, we will not be assimilated, and we make no apology for being Māori,” he said.

Ms Maipi-Clarke had already been suspended for one day for refusing to apologise for her actions in November, and queried why she faced further punishment.

The last time an MP was suspended following a Privileges Committee hearing was four decades ago, when former prime minister Sir Robert Muldoon was suspended for three days because he had “reflected on the Speaker”.

Until now, that suspension remains the toughest punishment ever handed down to an MP.