New Zealand set to suspend Maori politicians over protest haka
Indigenous Maori politicians have decried a push to temporarily banish them from New Zealand's parliament, after disrupting the reading of a contentious race relations bill with a protest haka.
Maori Party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, 22, derailed parliament in November when she ripped a copy of the proposed laws in half while performing a spirited traditional chant.
She was joined by party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who strode on to the chamber floor chanting the Ka Mate haka famously performed by the country's All Blacks rugby team.
A parliamentary committee yesterday evening recommended suspending Mr Waititi and Ms Ngarewa-Packer for three weeks, and Ms Maipi-Clarke for seven days.
The Maori Party said it was one of the harshest punishments ever doled out in New Zealand's parliament.
"When tangata whenua resist, colonial powers reach for the maximum penalty," the party said in a statement, using a phrase for Maori people.
"This is a warning shot to all of us to fall in line."
Deputy prime minister Winston Peters described the trio as "out-of-control MPs who flout the rules and intimidate others with outrageous hakas".
Parliament will vote on the suspension next week, although it is widely expected to pass.
The "Treaty Principles Bill" sought to reinterpret New Zealand's founding document, signed between Maori chiefs and British representatives in 1840.
Many critics saw the bill as an attempt to wind back the special rights given to the country's 900,000-strong Maori population.
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