Haka interrupts NZ parliament, MPs kicked out, as treaty bill arrives

Wellington: Furious New Zealand Maori MPs performed a haka in parliament on Thursday, delaying a vote on the Treaty Principles Bill, and concluded an extraordinary debate during which tempers flared and two MPs were reprimanded.

Led by Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, opposition MPs and members of the public gallery brought parliament to a haltas she ripped a copy of the bill, and MPs and the public stood to perform the haka, Ka Mate.

The bill seeks to redefine the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, the 1840 agreement between indigenous Māori and the British Crown that is considered the nation’s founding document. Its introduction has fuelled racial tensions and is among several government actions that have angered Māori, including abolishing the Māori Health Authority and reversing moves that gave greater prominence to Māori language.

It was “grossly disorderly”, the Speaker of Parliament, Gerry Brownlee, said after the haka. He took the very rare step of “naming” Maipi-Clarke and calling for the House to judge her conduct.

The coalition parties – National, ACT and NZ First – voted with the Speaker to suspend Maipi-Clarke. That meant she was unable to vote against the bill.

Brownlee ordered security to clear the public gallery, and he briefly suspended parliament as a result of the haka.

Alongside Maipi-Clarke, Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi went face-to-face with David Seymour, whose bill it is, as they performed the Ngāti Toa haka.

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (right) and her colleagues from Te Haiti Māori talk to reporters after the protest inside parliament.Credit: AP

When it came time for the bill to be voted on, the same parties voted in favour. Their support would send the bill to a select committee, which was expected to take six months to consider it.

Labour Maori development spokesperson Willie Jackson called that “a six-month hate tour”.

Jackson was then kicked out of the house himself, after refusing to apologise to Seymour for calling the associate justice minister a “liar”.

Jackson said he had a “message” for Seymour, given to him by people who were at the hīkoi mō te Tiriti in Auckland.

“To you, David Seymour: you fuel hatred and misinformation in this country, you bring out the worst in New Zealanders, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you are a liar,” Jackson said in parliament.

He then refused to withdraw his comment. “I can’t do that,” he told Brownlee, adding: “That’s a message from the hīkoi.” He was then booted from the House.

Seymour was under pressure through the debate and was the only MP to speak in favour of the bill. Coalition partners from National and NZ First said they did not like the bill, but would keep to the coalition agreement and support it at first reading.

Willie Jackson was kicked out of parliament after refusing to apologise for calling the associate justice minister a “liar”.Credit: Stuff

He argued the bill would give “tino rangatiratanga” to everyone, and rejected criticism that he was stirring racial division.

“That is not true. My mission is to empower every person,” Seymour replied.

ACT Party leader David Seymour stands during the first debate on the Treaty Principal Bill.Credit: AP

Speaking after the debate, he said the opposition and coalition MPs had not raised any strong argument against the bill.

“I heard all sorts of name-calling, I heard hysteria, I saw haka, but I didn’t hear any arguments,” he said.

He said he had never before seen a Speaker eject the entire public gallery, during his decade as an MP.

Long-serving MPs, who have been in parliament for decades, couldn’t recall a moment like this. They called it an “unprecedented” day for the House.

“We respect their right to have debate according to the rules of parliament. They have to reciprocate. Otherwise, it doesn’t work,” Seymour said.

Rawiri Waititi spoke against the Treaty Principles Bill.Credit: Stuff

“The idea that some people have a greater right to obstruct other people’s right to be represented. That’s a lot about what this bill is about, the idea that we should each have equal rights.”

Tensions between ACT and Te Pāti Māori were at boiling point.

During the debate, Ngarewa-Packer and ACT’s Nicole McKee were shouting at each other across the aisle. At one point, Seymour pulled McKee back – urging her to step away from the argument.

During Waititi’s speech, he compared the ACT Party to the Ku Klux Klan.

He said parliament had no right to redefine the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

“This parliament means nothing in Aotearoa without Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” he said.

Waititi said only the signatories of the treaty, being the monarch and the rangatira of hapū of Aotearoa, had the power to change Te Tiriti.

“Tell me David Seymour, which one of those are you?” he asked.

Waititi told coalition MPs they were “complicit in harm”, which he said would be caused by the Treaty Principles Bill. That bill, he said, was “euthanising Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Thursday called the bill divisive and a distraction. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Given National said it did not support the bill, Waititi said: “ACT are seen to be pulling the strings and running the country like the KKK.”

Green co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said the bill was designed to oppress Maori.

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. That is what is behind this bill,” she said.

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke against the bill. Holding a press conference with reporters before departing New Zealand, he called the bill “divisive” and said it was a distraction.

He said the bill oversimplified a complex issue.

“You do not go negate, with a single stroke of a pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that I think is very simplistic,” he said.

The bill was expected to return to the debating chamber in the first half of next year.

Stuff

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