The dreads are in the House - and they are not going to be cut down to size.
Dreadlocks and hemp suits were formally approved as suitable attire for MPs yesterday as new Green MPs Nandor Tanczos (campaign slogan: "Put the Dread in the House"), Sue Bradford, Sue Kedgley and Ian
Ewen-Street arrived at Parliament.
The four were joined by the party's potential seventh MP, Keith Locke, whose position depends on the final vote count.
As the new MPs posed for photographs on the front steps of Parliament, Sue Bradford joked that on her last visit she had been arrested protesting against the work-for-the-dole scheme.
Mr Tanczos said he had always expected to keep his waist-length hair.
As for his dark-blue hemp suit: "I'm having it made up. I hope it will be ready in time."
The incoming Speaker, Labour's Jonathan Hunt, said he had no objection to dreadlocks or hemp suits.
"If they're properly and decently dressed, I think that's okay."
The outgoing Speaker, National's Doug Kidd, said that although male MPs had to wear a suit and a tie in the House, dreadlocks were a "fashion and style" item outside the rules.
And if polyester suits had been acceptable a decade ago, he could not see any reason hemp suits should not be now.
