The New Zealand Parliament yesterday agreed on historically lengthy suspensions for three indigenous lawmakers who last year performed a haka, a traditional Maori dance, disrupting the reading of a controversial bill.
A parliamentary privileges committee last month recommended the suspension of the three Te Pati Maori lawmakers for acting in “a manner that could have the effect of intimidating a member of the house.”
The three performed the haka in November last year ahead of a vote on a controversial bill that would have reinterpreted a 185-year-old treaty between the UK and the Maori that still guides the country’s policy and legislation.
Photo: AP
The government voted through the suspensions, which would see Te Pati Maori coleaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi stood down from parliament for 21 days, and representative Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke for seven days.
While the members are suspended, they would not be paid or be able to vote on legislation.
Suspending lawmakers is rare in New Zealand’s parliament, with only three members suspended in the past 10 years, New Zealand Parliamentary Service said.
Before yesterday, the longest suspension was for three days, said New Zealand representatives who spoke earlier in the day.
Maipi-Clarke told lawmakers ahead of the vote that the suspension was an effort to stop Maori from making themselves heard in parliament.
“Are our voices too loud for this house? Is that the reason why we are being silenced? Are our voices shaking the core foundation of this house? The house we had no voice in building... We will never be silenced and we will never be lost,” she said.
Judith Collins, who heads the Privileges Committee and serves as attorney general, had previously told parliament that the haka forced the speaker to suspend proceedings for 30 minutes and that no permission had been sought to perform it.
“It’s not about the haka ... it is about following the rules of parliament that we are all obliged to follow and that we all pledged to follow,” Collins said.
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