The New Zealand Parliament has voted to impose record suspensions on three lawmakers who did a Maori haka as a protest. The incident took place last November during a debate on a law on Indigenous rights.
New Zealand’s parliament on Thursday agreed to lengthy suspensions for three lawmakers who disrupted the reading of a controversial bill last year by performing a haka, a traditional Maori dance.
Two parliamentarians — Te Pati Maori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi — were suspended for 21 days and one — Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, from the same party — for seven days.
Before now, the longest suspension of a parliamentarian in New Zealand was three days.
Settler colonial government doing what settler colonial governments do.
Tell us you’re racist without saying that you’re racist.
I dunno. This looks like signing a legal document that confirms they’re racist.
No it’s a document that implies that they’re racist but hiding behind rules to make it seem like they’re not.
fragile ass white men
It is still a British colony. They need to ditch the British king Charles as fast as possible.
Yeah, because that’s it…
What else would it be at this point?
Brits oppressing natives
A tale as old as tea
“The only reason God created the natives was for us to have a bit of sport, old chap”
And, in 2025, the Pākehā keep deciding what happens to indigenous land and indigenous resources, without letting Maori have any voice in it. Toitū te Tiriti!
You expected more? She knew it was going to happen, she did it specifically so it would happen and history won’t look fondly in their bullshit suspension.
Here is a metal version of her really impressive protest. How is this not awesome?
Made my day.
Awesome!
OMG that was powerful. I literally am crying right now. How awesome. And often awesome is overused. But, that was awesome.
As an enjoyer of metal, top song! Good on Hana-Rawhiti for protesting.
Momentarily I thought maybe that’s why my old boss thought I was mellow. But just remembered, the guy was Australian! Its a different musical system over there.
What!? But that haka was awesome! How can you not enjoy that?
There are many enjoyable things that are not appropriate to do in parliament.
While I personally don’t see how performing haka is constructive to include in a debate about the bill, I think it’s unrelated to the discussion about what is or is not appropriate in the debating chamber.
not appropriate to do in parliament.
Seems like it functioned exactly as intended. Power to the People.
Burning down the houses of parliament would also suspend voting on the bill. Do the ends justify the means?
The bill is now suspended; is the strategy to keep performing hakas to continuously silence members of parliament? The risk is that the next time, when the opposition wants to influence a bill, they also create a circus in the debate chamber. That is not a democratic process.
I acknowledge the downvotes without any discourse. If you’d like to see how this actually unfolded, here’s some context.
I’m curious to see how proponents of this behaviour would support the other side of the aisle perform similar theatrics.
‘If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.’
Shame. Wtf is wrong with your shitty shitty politics New Zealand?!!?! (Not an American, so I can call out anti-Indigenous politics)
Not an American, so I can call out anti-Indigenous politics
Any decent human being can and should call out anti-Indigenous politics, no matter their nationality.
Yes, but I just don’t see anything resembling reconciliation happening in the US vis-a-vis Indigenous peoples there. Like, in the US there doesn’t appear to be any reconciliation, not even symbolic gestures like land acknowledgements at events, or meaningful involvement of Indigenous people in settler politics. Are any elected officials in the US also Indigenous, like - at all?
Your logic doesn’t make sense to me, you’re saying people in the US cannot spot and criticize injustices happening in other places because those same injustices are happening in their home country? What about the people who do criticize them locally? Or the natives who are affected by them locally?
Where are you from bud?
From the profile, Canadian. Oh the irony wanting to talk about the anti-indigenous practices
How is that relevant to who can and can’t discuss Indigenous rights though? Surely the more people in the world who care about Indigenous rights, the better.
To answer your question the US has about 5 out of 435 members, Canada has about 12 out of 343 members. New Zealand has about 33 out of 123 members which is obviously a much larger proportion of their total.
I will never understand why so many Canadians and Americans seem so unaware of one anothers’ Indigenous rights movements. You are neighbouring countries and some of your Indigenous nations are cross-border.
I don’t know anything about New Zealand, or Maori culture, or history, or parliamentary procedure, or the Treaty Principles Bill, or the hearings that led to this decision, or the Haka, or sociology, or anthropology, or race relations, or indigenous issues, but I think…
why don’t they just have everyone do their hakas at the start, like in the rugby?
I know one person from New Zealand and she’s racist as fuck.
Cool. Thanks for the contribution to the discussion!
As someone who is half-Maori this just embarrasses me. I don’t have a problem with people celebrating their heritage and culture just do it in a more appropriate time and place. I wouldn’t have a problem with Irish people celebrating the Saint Patrick’s Day just as long as they don’t do it during a meeting at parliament.
Seems like as valid a way to protest vile revisionism and cowardly pandering to a foreign monarch.
No it isn’t. If this was on the street then it would be fine but this was a place of law and order where if you don’t like something you talk about it like an adult. It was totally unprofessional and performative.
this was a place of law and order
Clearly not, given what was being proposed. This was a legislative attempt to reneg on existing agreements between the Maori People and the British State. It was wildly illegal and provoked an appropriately outraged response.
What the legislators were protesting was the legislative equivalent of a mugging. The exact opposite of law and order. ACT New Zealand’s delegates are lucky they got out of there with a bit of dancing. In other countries, that kind of blatant criminality is a hanging offense.
Governments change agreements all the time. There is nothing illegal or unlawful about that. Whether you agree with it or not isn’t the point. Just because somebody does something you disagree with doesn’t give you the right to throw a fit about it.
I’m eager to see how this community will support the conservatives when they loudly disrupt the debate chamber and silence the Maori members of parliament, now the precedent has been set that this is acceptable behavior.
This comment is unrelated to my position. (Which, for what it’s worth, is in favor of the Maori.)
Where i want congress to pick up the old tradition of thowimg raw chicken at each other
I’m missing out on a lot of context here.
At keast once lawmakers started throwing raw chicken meat at each otger during a session to protest sone tarrif.
Unpopular opinion but interruption is interruption no matter the form. I do agree with the native protest here but I wouldn’t read into this ruling too much as any governing body would take this position. Weak governing rule set creates these loopholes like the American filibuster which imo is a bug not a feature.
I support the suspensions. If all the other members abide by the same rules except for these ones then it makes sense reprimand them for disrupting the duties of parliament. These lawmakers were elected to be the voice of the people they represent. If they’re not using their voice to explain why they oppose the bill or what their proposed alternatives are then they’re not doing their job. Screaming and tearing up papers is just annoying and wasting everyone’s time.
You are being downvoted because, whether you realize it or not, what you wrote is extremely racist.
These are Maori. It’s their land and their traditions, and they are being attacked for both by white, authoritarian colonists. It’s unacceptable.
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These lawmakers were elected to be the voice of the people they represent.
https://www.dw.com/en/new-zealand-42000-demonstrate-support-for-maori-rights/a-70816454
New Zealand: 42,000 demonstrate support for Maori rights
Thousands turned out despite the bill having little chance of becoming law, saying it was important to show the extent of dissent
but feel free to keep jerkin it to ‘norms and civility’, i suppose
I don’t think you understand that norms and civility are a requirement for a peaceful, well functioning democracy. If you see them as a nuisance then you’re either an authoritarian or an idiot. Like seriously, do you think society is going to function if every self righteous politician start being obnoxious when something doesn’t go their way? That braindead mentality is literally how we ended up with Trump and MAGA in the US. It is THE first pillar to fall when on your way to authoritarianism.
These politicians can support or oppose whatever they want, it’s their job to do so. However, disrupting the duties of the parliament is not a part of their job, and they know that. If a couple of white politicians in New Zealand started doing berserker rituals every time something doesn’t go their way in parliament, will you still be making excuses? If not, then you hold double standards and you’re racist. They’re the same people, in the same country, and they should abide by customs that they set for themselves. The New Zealand parliament usually has 120, 117 members with vastly different opinions can conduct themselves just fine, 3 can’t. Those 3 got suspended.
When the Maori invade england and start forcing their customs on the people there, then maybe you might come somewhere close to pointing out a double standard. (also, berserker brits, lol what a concept)
We don’t have Trump because people started behaving poorly, we have Trump because there’s been half a century of constricting living standards and a wealthy political duopoly that just doesn’t care. Obama bailing out the banks rather than the people that lost their homes did more to kill civility than anything Trump has done.
When the Maori invade england and start forcing their customs on the people there, then maybe you might come somewhere close to pointing out a double standard.
But the framing is wrong. If Maori invaded Britain 250 years ago and over time, the two peoples mixed and created a well run multi racial liberal democracy where all it’s citizens enjoy full rights, then the same standard applies. If a couple of politicians of British origin were being obnoxious and were disrupting the duties of the parliament, and the rest of the politicians decided to suspend them for their behavior, then I would be fully in favor of that too. Being of a specific ethnicity doesn’t get anyone a pass to be obnoxious.
also, berserker brits, lol what a concept
It’s not a concept, it’s actual history. The vikings were a big part of British history.
We don’t have Trump because people started behaving poorly, we have Trump because there’s been half a century of constricting living standards and a wealthy political duopoly that just doesn’t care. Obama bailing out the banks rather than the people that lost their homes did more to kill civility than anything Trump has done.
These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, they go together hand in hand. Think about it, who focuses the most on useless shit like culture wars that are meant to stir fear and anger in people in our political landscape? It’s almost always either corrupt politicians or obnoxious idiots, often times it’s both. The point is that the people who are making things worse are also the people who have no manners, ethics, or morals.
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