New Zealand Parliament votes for record suspensions of 3 lawmakers who performed Māori haka
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand legislators voted Thursday to enact record suspensions from Parliament for three lawmakers who performed a Māori haka to protest a proposed law.
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke received a seven-day ban and her colleagues from Te Pāti Māori, the Māori Party, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, are barred for 21 days.
Three days had been the longest ban from New Zealand's Parliament before.
They performed the haka last November to oppose a bill they said would reverse Indigenous rights. The protest provoked months of dispute among lawmakers about what the consequences should be. Thursday's vote followed hours of fraught debate in Parliament.
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