New Zealand’s parliament voted to hand out record suspensions to three Indigenous Māori MPs for performing the haka to protest a controversial law.
Māori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were handed a suspension for 21 days while New Zealand's youngest MP, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, was barred for seven days.
The suspensions marked the longest period any lawmaker has been barred from parliament in the country’s history.
Suspensions of MPs are already rare in New Zealand and a three-day suspension has been previously handed. Only three MPs have been suspended in the past 10 years, according to New Zealand parliamentary services.
The suspended MPs said “Māori would not be silenced”. The opposition Labour party said the decision was inconsistent with New Zealand's democracy.
The three MPs performed the haka last November in parliament ahead of a vote on a bill, now defeated, that would have reinterpreted the 185-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed between the British and Indigenous Māori tribe.
The video of the protest, a ceremonial Māori dance made world-famous by the country’s men’s rugby team, the All Blacks, went viral across the internet and made international headlines.
The footage showed Ms Maipi-Clarke, 22, ripping apart a copy of the bill after rising from her chair and performing the haka. Ms Maipi-Clarke was then joined by Mr Waititi and Ms Ngarewa-Packer in the chamber floor as they chanted “Ka Mate”, the chant often performed by the All Blacks rugby team before games.
Lawmakers who decried the performance said the legislators from Te Pati Māori, the Māori Party, left their seats and strode across the floor toward government politicians and disrupted the vote on a proposed law.
Ms Maipi-Clarke criticised the suspension and said it was an effort to silence the Māori in parliament.
"A member can swear at another member, a member of cabinet can lay their hands on a staff member, a member can drive up the steps of parliament, a member can swear in parliament, and yet they weren't given five minutes of suspension," she said.
"Yet when we stand up for the country's foundational document, we get punished with the most severe consequences.
"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.
In a dramatic display, Mr Waititi held up a noose as he said the decision means “you’ve traded the noose for legislation”.
"In my maiden speech, I talked about one of our [ancestors] who was hung in the gallows of Mt Eden Prison, wrongfully accused," he said.
"The silencing of us today is a reminder of the silencing of our ancestors of the past, and it continues to happen.
"Well, we will not be silenced."
Judith Collins, the committee chair, said the behaviour was egregious, disruptive and potentially intimidating, defending the decision.
"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," Ms Collins said.
Labour parliamentarian Duncan Webb said the decision was "inconsistent with the fundamental nature of this democracy".
"This decision is wildly out of step with any other decision of the Privileges Committee," Mr Webb said.
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