Speaker Gerry Brownlee was forced to take the rare move of suspending the House and clearing the public gallery after Maori Party MPs performed a haka.
Confusion and chaos engulfed New Zealand’s Parliament after MPs from the minor Māori Party interrupted a party vote on the Treaty Principles Bill.
Sitting members staged a ceremonial haka and refused calls for order during a vote on whether the contentious Bill should be referred to a Select Committee for further investigation.
National, Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First had their votes recorded when Māori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke stood and began speaking in the Māori language—permissible under Standing Orders because it is recognised as an official language of New Zealand.
He then broke into the well-known haka, Ka Mate. She was quickly joined by the party’s five other MPs, and some in the public gallery.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee’s calls for order were barely audible, so he rose to his feet—a signal that all MPs should resume their seats and be silent.
That was ignored for around half a minute as the speaker became visibly annoyed. When the noise finally stopped, he ordered that the sitting be suspended and the gallery cleared.
What is the Bill Aiming to Do?
The libertarian ACT Party, which governs in partnership with the much larger centre-right National Party and nationalist NZ First, has pushed to clearly define and limit the scope of the three clauses of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Considered the founding document of New Zealand, the Treaty was signed in 1840 in an agreement between the British Crown and many (but not all) Māori chiefs.
For decades, it played no significant role in lawmaking or the courts, however in 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal was established to rule on claims by Māori iwi (tribes) and to enact the “intent” of the document—almost a form of judicial activism.
As a consequence, there is now almost 50 years of case law dealing with land rights issues, as well as unique rights for Māori different from the rest of the population.
But as tribes began to make claims on areas outside their traditional areas—one decision found that Māori had an interest in radio spectrum, even though it was unheard of in 1840—opposition to this approach began to mount.
The ACT’s move has spurred strong opposition with Maori community groups staging a nine-day protest march from Auckland to the capital Wellington.
Coalition Partner Will Not Support the Bill Further
Due to the commotion, the the Bill had not passed its first reading—something that had to wait until order had been restored and the speaker returned to his seat later in the day.
Ironically, the last MP to speak before the aborted vote was National’s James Meager, a first-term MP who chairs the Justice Committee, which will hear submissions on the Bill during the six-month Select Committee process.
He promised that submitters would be heard respectfully and in line with Standing Orders but reiterated that the National Party would not support the Bill at its second reading—something also pledged by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Nov. 14, and Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith earlier in the debate.
Speaker Censures, Ejects MPs
When Speaker Brownlee returned following the disorder, he said Maipi-Clarke’s conduct in disrupting the House was disrespectful and grossly disorderly.
He “named” her and suspended her from the House, something he said was serious and brought him no satisfaction.
Government parties supported the speaker’s motion to suspend the errant MP, while opposition parties opposed it.
Earlier in the day, there was more drama as Brownlee ordered Labour MP Willie Jackson to leave the debating chamber after his speech.
Jackson accused ACT Party leader David Seymour of trying to rewrite the Treaty of Waitangi and override 50 years of bipartisan agreement. The Bill was bringing out the worst in New Zealanders, he said, and Seymour “should be ashamed.”
“I said some time ago [Seymour’s] the most dangerous politician in New Zealand. And that has come to pass,” Jackson said in a speech directed mostly at the ACT leader.
He also accused Prime Minister Luxon of being too weak to stop the Bill from going ahead, leading to applause from opposition MPs and the public gallery, as well as a reminder from Brownlee that visitors to the House were to remain silent.
“Māoridom will never accept a redefining of our relationship with the Crown,” Jackson went on.
“Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. We will march and march for our rights.”
He ended his speech by calling Seymour a liar—a phrase long prohibited under Standing Orders—and then refused to withdraw and apologise, leading to his ejection by the speaker, making him the first MP removed from the House this term.
As the ACT’s Seymour rose at the start of the debate to introduce the Bill, he could barely be heard due to the volume of interjections and heckles from opposition MPs, leading Brownlee to warn them to stop what he called “a barrage.”
He argued the existing Treaty principles, refined by the courts, are problematic because “they afford Māori different rights from other New Zealanders, and I know why that is: lawyers, with their training, they can’t help but see a contract and their instinct tells them to interpret a contract instead of ask ‘what is the best constitutional foundation for a country.’”