Parliament has voted to dish out the toughest parliamentary sanctions ever to the Te Pāti Māori co-leaders after a fiery debate in the House today.

The debate relaunched this afternoon after it was abruptly adjourned last month to give way to the Budget.

Parliament’s Privileges Committee recommended suspending Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer for 21 days and MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke for seven days after a controversial haka in the House last year.

Previously, the longest suspension in Parliament’s 171-year history was three sitting days.
The committee’s recommendations were put to the House for debate where they passed – but only after acrimonious scenes.

NZ First leader Winston Peters called Te Pāti Māori a “bunch of extremists” and said the Māori world “has had enough of them”.

Waititi held up a noose in Parliament, saying those in power had “traded the noose for legislation”.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi holds up a noose in Parliament during a heated debate on sanctions for performing a haka. Photo / Jamie Ensor

Labour and the Greens MPs pushed for a weaker punishment.

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said she believed the committee’s recommendations were partisan and the House should guard against this.

She said the Treaty Principles Bill was designed to provoke and threatened generations of “fundamental relationships” between Māori and non-Māori.

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“It was political violence,” she said, adding the haka was the least it deserved.

Labour’s Dr Duncan Webb said the Privileges Committee is usually bipartisan, but it is “unfortunate” this isn’t the case with these recommendations.

He acknowledged there was a contempt of the House but warned the sanctions proposed were “inconsistent” with the principles of democracy.

Act MP Parmjeet Parmar, a member of the Privileges Committee, spoke about the MPs approaching Act’s seats and highlighted a hand gesture Ngarewa-Packer made, which Act compared to a gun.

She said MPs can disagree on ideas through debate, rather than intimidating physical gestures.

She said the House has debated controversial legislation before without that kind of behaviour.

The vote on the sanction for Maipi-Clarke passed with 68 in favour and 55 opposed, meaning she has been suspended for seven days.

On the question of Ngarewa-Packer being suspended for 21 days, this passed with 68 in favour and 54 votes opposed.

The one less vote opposed reflected that Maipi-Clarke had been suspended and therefore could not vote.

As for the question of Waititi being suspended for 21 days, this passed with 68 in favour, 53 votes opposed.

Members of Te Pāti Māori perform a haka in front of Act MPs during the first reading of the Treaty Principles bill last year. Photo / Adam Pearse

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

The haka at the centre of the matter happened during the first reading of the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, which was eventually voted down at second reading. The haka has since gone viral globally, amassing hundreds of millions of views on social media.

Maipi-Clarke, Parliament’s youngest MP, brought Parliament to a standstill when she began the haka while ripping up a copy of the bill, a proposal from Act leader David Seymour to replace the many Treaty principles developed over time by experts and the court with three new ones.

Many perceived the bill as a threat to Māori and detrimental to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It was a catalyst of the massive hīkoi protest to Parliament in November last year.

Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer stood up and joined Maipi-Clarke in the haka, moving from their seats towards the Act Party benches. Labour’s Peeni Henare also moved away from his seat to perform.

Henare later apologised to the Judith Collins-led Privileges Committee for knowingly breaking the rules by stepping away from his seat, but said he stood by his haka and would do it again.

Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi (left) and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have been defiant in their defence of the haka in Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The trio from Te Pāti Māori were referred to the Privileges Committee but 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.

Te Pāti Māori have been defiant in their defence of the haka. Waititi told reporters on Wednesday afternoon it was not clear exactly what the trio were being punished for.

“Some of the House found it intimidating, some of the House found it exhilarating because half of House stood up. We don’t know what the reasons are for the 21 days sanctions.”

Waititi spoke with The Hui soon after the committee’s unprecedented recommendations were released. He said he was thinking about the people who had entrusted him to “represent them the best way I know”.

“And that is to be unapologetic, that is to be authentic and honest and respectful of who we are. We should be able to do that without fear or favour and be able to do that without being ashamed of being Māori,” Waititi told The Hui host Julian Wilcox.

“What I feel is that we are being punished for being Māori. The country loves my haka, the world loves my haka, but it feels like they don’t love me.”

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.