The video has been viewed more than 700 million times, but it is the view of Parliament’s Privileges Committee, which will determine the fate of four MPs who performed a haka (a traditional Māori challenge) that interrupted a vote on the Treaty Principles Bill.
Their performance during the first reading of the Bill, which seeks to codify the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi into law, made headlines worldwide.
As parties were called on to state the number of votes in favour or against, Māori Party MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke began performing Ka Mate, perhaps the best-known haka, since the All Blacks also perform it before their games.
She was joined by a number of other MPs, some of whom left their seats, and by people in the public gallery. After trying to restore order, Speaker Gerry Brownlee was forced to suspend proceedings.
Maipi-Clarke was later “named” by Brownlee, meaning she could not return to the House when proceedings resumed.
But NZ First Minister Shane Jones, National MP Suze Redmayne, and ACT MP Todd Stephenson all wrote to the Speaker to complain about the event, which Brownlee said was “disorderly and disruptive.”
After considering those complaints, he has decided to refer Māori Party MPs Maipi-Clarke, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and Rawiri Waititi, and Labour’s Peeni Henare to the Privileges Committee.
It would rule solely on the MPs’ behaviour and not on the appropriateness of haka and its place in the House, which was a different matter that the Standing Orders Committee would consider.
“Taking an action to prevent votes being completed is completely unacceptable,” Brownlee said. “At this point, however, naming has been the only action I’ve chosen to take on that matter.
“The letters I’ve received name a number of members who participated in a haka in the House, and in particular, four members who left their seats to stand on the floor of the House, three of those members advancing towards the seats of another party. That is disorderly and cannot be considered anything other than disorderly.
“The issue of members leaving their seats to participate in an activity that was disorderly and disruptive to the procedure of the House is something that should be considered further. The House may treat as a contempt any act which obstructs or impedes the House in the performance of its functions.”
The Privileges Committee is Parliament’s “court,” with members from all parties and the power to punish bad behaviour.
ACT leader David Seymour said he believed the incident had damaged the country’s reputation and that most New Zealanders thought it looked “ridiculous.”
But in the wake of the incident, the Māori Party has made the greatest gains in the latest One News Valerian poll, gaining 3 percent to reach 7 percent, giving it nine seats in Parliament under New Zealand’s electoral system.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has asked why only Māori MPs have been referred to the Privileges Committee, pointing out that several non-Māori were doing the haka from their seats yet hadn’t been referred by the Speaker.
Pressed as to what he meant by that, he said, “I think it’s a political statement more than anything else.”
He said haka had often occurred in the House, and “we seem to be punishing people for something that, in other circumstances, has been allowed.”
Ngarewa-Packer echoed that point, saying the haka was performed at All Blacks games, graduations, and funerals, and was not considered disorderly in those settings.
What Is Being Protested?
The libertarian ACT Party, which governs in partnership with the much larger centre-right National Party and nationalist NZ First, has pushed to clearly define and limit the scope of the three clauses of the Treaty of Waitangi.Considered the founding document of New Zealand, the Treaty was signed in 1840 in an agreement between the British Crown and many (but not all) Māori chiefs.
For decades, it played no significant role in lawmaking or the courts, however in 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal was established to rule on claims by Māori iwi (tribes) and to enact the “intent” of the document—almost a form of judicial activism.
As a consequence, there is now almost 50 years of case law dealing with land rights issues, as well as unique rights for Māori different from the rest of the population.
The Treaty Principles Bill attempts to define the Treaty’s terms and ensure all New Zealanders are treated the same under the law, thus removing these unique rights from the Māori population.
ACT Leader David Seymour, who presented the bill, told reporters in November that the Bill “provides an opportunity for New Zealanders—rather than the courts and the Waitangi Tribunal—to have a say on what the Treaty means.
Māori Party Consolidates Support
Following the haka and a nationwide protest march and rally against the Treaty Principles Bill, the Māori electoral roll—which entitles people to vote in the separate Māori seats (but not in a general electorate)—has grown by over 3,000.During the rally, Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi encouraged people to opt for the Maori roll, especially those enrolling for the first time.
“We are now 20 percent of the population—we are a million people in this country. That should translate into 19 to 20 seats. We should be determining who the government is every election—that’s the strategy. Everybody on the Māori roll,” he said at the time.
