• Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters criticised Parliament as a “house of chaos” on social media. 
• His comments followed the recommended suspension of three Te Pāti Māori MPs for performing a haka. 
• Peters also condemned the use of offensive language and relaxed dress standards in the House. 

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has launched a broadside at Parliament this morning, calling it a “house of chaos” in a social media post. 

The attack on X, formerly Twitter, comes after Parliament’s Privileges Committee yesterday recommended suspending three Te Pāti Māori MPs after they performed a haka during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill last year, which was voted down at its next reading. 

It also followed Workplace Relations Minister and Act deputy leader Brooke van Velden making Parliament history on Tuesday when she used the C-word in the House while attacking Labour for not condemning a column that used the word “c***” against female ministers. 

“Our House of Representatives has become a House of Chaos”, wrote Peters this morning. 

“For a long time, we have warned that the standards have begun slipping in the House,” former Labour Minister Steve Maharey also wrote in a Herald article last year. 

“From relaxing the dress standards in our House to now having utter disorder and the worst of offensive words uttered in Question Time – no matter which side of opinion you’re on – and with no reaction or repercussion. How should we as politicians expect the people of New Zealand to view us all now?” 

Winston Peters, pictured shortly after Brooke van Velden used the c-word in Parliament. Photo / NZ Herald 

The country had “out-of-control MPs who flout the rules and intimidate others with outrageous hakas and offensive language and now getting banished for weeks”, Peters wrote, in reference to the privileges committee recommending 21-day suspensions for Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi over a haka. 

A seven-day suspension was also recommended for the party’s Hauraki-Waikato MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke. 

“This is not democracy. These are the seeds of anarchy”, Peters wrote. 

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The octogenarian also blasted the dress of MPs wearing “T-shirts and sneakers, hats and sunglasses and jerseys – and even occasionally barefooted”. 

“What have we as so called ‘respectable parliamentarians’ become? Parliament has morphed into an embarrassment to the very people we are here purporting to represent. 

“It is an outrage. And New Zealanders have a right to be outraged.” 

He blamed the House and the press gallery for then “collectively” ignoring the behaviour. 

“And what do we as a House and even those in the political press gallery do? Collectively sit back and cower and hope no one notices, hope no one says the wrong thing. 

“Where are the standards of democracy that we all as a county together once fought for and stood up for? To accept this drop in standards is to accept that we have given up.” 

He had never seen “the level of degradation” of the country’s democracy in his many years of politics, Peters wrote, and New Zealanders should be “more fearful than outraged”. 

“We are in danger of losing this battle for decency, values, and the principles our country was built on. Standards must be restored, and now. Before it’s too late.” 

Peters’ post follows comments on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning by National MP Judith Collins calling for “civility” in the House after the decision by the Privileges Committee – which she chairs – to suspend the three Te Pāti Māori MPs. 

Collins also said she was proud of van Velden for “standing up for herself”.