• Parliament’s privileges committee recommended suspending three Te Pāti Māori MPs for last year’s haka.
• Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi face 21-day suspensions; Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, seven days.
• The recommendation will be presented to the House tomorrow.

Parliament’s privileges committee has recommended suspending three Te Pāti Māori MPs after last year’s controversial haka.

The powerful committee said the trio had acted “in a manner that could have the effect of intimidating a member of the House in the discharge of their duty”.

The committee recommended 21-day suspensions for co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, saying they should be “severely censured”.

It also recommended a seven-day suspension for MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.

Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke was among those to perform a haka at Parliament after the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill in November last year. Photo / RNZ

The recommendation will be put to the House tomorrow and likely passed. The Greens and Labour dissented from the recommendation, although Labour agreed the MPs’ conduct constituted contempt.

Te Pāti Māori fired back on social media, calling it “the worst punishment handed down EVER in our history”.

“When Tangata whenua resist, colonial powers reach for maximum penalty,” it wrote on Facebook.

“This is a warning shot to all of us to fall in line. E kore rawa matau e tuohu!”

In a statement, Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi called the process “grossly unjust, unfair, and unwarranted, resulting in an extreme sanction. This was not about process, this became personal”.

After a long deliberation, the committee arrived at its conclusion this afternoon.

Committee chairwoman and National Party minister Judith Collins emerged from the committee’s latest meeting and confirmed members had agreed on the form of punishment Waititi, Ngarewa-Packer and Maipi-Clarke would receive.

She wouldn’t discuss the committee’s decision, saying she would report it to the House tomorrow. The matter was likely to be debated by MPs in the House next week.

Asked if she was happy with the decision, Collins said she wouldn’t describe her feelings in that way.

“I wouldn’t call it that, I would say it’s a very serious matter, as I’ve said on numerous occasions.”

Asked if the punishments were strong enough to discourage such behaviour, Collins expected people would come to their own conclusions on that.

Te Pāti Māori had been advised of the committee’s decision.

Minister Judith Collins will reveal the committee's decision tomorrow. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Committee member and NZ First leader Winston Peters wouldn’t give anything away as he left the meeting room.

“For the umpteenth time, this matter is confidential until presented to the House.”

The haka at the centre of the matter was conducted during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill, which was voted down at its next reading.

After the haka, which went viral globally, Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee punished Maipi-Clarke by naming her in the House, and she was stood down for 24 hours, which included her pay being docked.

The trio were referred to the privileges committee, but they ignored the initial summons to appear in person, arguing they had been denied legal representation and the ability to appear together. At the time, they promised to hold a separate “independent” hearing.

The MPs eventually responded to the committee via a written submission.

Last week, Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer had to apologise after their party’s social media account posted a screenshot of possible outcomes of the committee’s deliberations.

Adam Pearse is the deputy political editor and part of the NZ Herald‘s press gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.