Treaty Principles Bill: Speaker refers four MPs to Privileges Committee after haka in the House

Speaker Gerry Brownlee has referred four MPs to the Privileges Committee for their involvement in a haka amid the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill.

Speaking before Question Time on Tuesday, Brownlee said the behaviour of Labour’s Peeni Henare and Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi, and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke had been “disorderly”.

The MPs left their seats to perform the haka, with the Te Pāti Māori MPs approaching Treaty Principles Bill steward David Seymour.

He said MPs should not obstruct others in the House and believed their actions were a matter the Privileges Committee should consider.

Brownlee refused to rule on how tikanga should be dealt with in the House, saying that will be reviewed by MPs at a later date.

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

Maipi-Clarke had already been named for starting the haka during the vote on the Bill. Her actions led to the House being temporarily suspended so the public gallery could be cleared.

Brownlee’s action on Tuesday followed letters from several MPs, including NZ First’s Shane Jones, National’s Suze Redmayne, and Act’s Todd Stephenson, complaining about the MPs’ actions.

Labour’s shadow Leader of the House Kieran McAnulty asked whether the Speaker had distinguished between the actions of the TPM MPs who approached Seymour, and Henare (who participated in the haka from in front of the Labour benches).

Brownlee said that wasn’t for him to rule on, but he said it was disorderly for an MP to leave their seat.

The haka was initiated by Maipi-Clarke as the House voted on the Treaty Principles Bill. A number of MPs joined in, some from their seats, while a haka was also conducted in the public gallery.

When naming Maipi-Clarke, Brownlee said her actions had been “appalling”, “disrespectful” and “grossly disorderly”. Government parties then supported suspending her, while those in Opposition voted against the motion.

Being named is one of the most serious – and rare – punishments in Parliament. The subsequent 24-hour suspension means the MP can’t take part in the likes of Question Time or votes. Their pay is also docked for the period of suspension.

Outside the House, Ngarewa-Packer said Brownlee had “stifled” opposition and the public, while the haka was about “challenging the Crown and making sure we are able to disrupt and show how te ao Māori is feeling about this disgusting Bill”.

Maipi-Clarke said, “This is all that I know, to be Māori”.

“We didn’t get the opportunity to challenge the bill as much as we would have liked to, through points of order, through speeches, through debates. We waited until the very last second, the last vote.”

But Seymour afterwards told the Herald he believed the scenes in the House proved Te Pāti Māori couldn’t argue effectively against his bill.

“In a way, it tells me this is why we need to have this debate because there are now people who don’t believe that they have to respectfully listen to others and actually come up with a better argument.”

The haka went viral on social media, being viewed hundreds of millions of times.

Despite the opposition, the bill passed through the first reading with support from all government parties. However, National and New Zealand First say they won’t back it any further.

Less than a week after the vote, tens of thousands of people marched to Parliament, primarily in opposition to the bill.

Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris is already before the Privileges Committee. The Speaker asked the committee to consider whether Ferris misled the House with comments he made during a general debate.