More than half of voters back proposed penalty for Te Pāti Māori MPs, poll suggests

RNZ News

2 days ago

Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke at Parliament, after the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill in November.
Photo:
RNZ/ Samuel Rillstone
More than half of voters consider the proposed penalty for three Te Pāti Māori MPs over the Treaty Principles haka to be either appropriate or too lenient, polling shows, ahead of the debate on the matter resuming on Thursday afternoon.
That debate
- which had
potential to become a filibuster
- was cut short when Leader of the House Chris Bishop
unexpectedly postponed it
last month.
The Privileges Committee - which recommends punishments for breaking Parliament's rules -
proposed a 21-day suspension
for the co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and seven days for MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. It means no pay, no ability to vote on legislation, and no presence in Parliament for the duration.
The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll asked for voters' views on whether the punishment fit the crime.
Overall, more people - 37.0 percent said it was "about right"; while 36.2 percent said it was "too harsh"; 17.2 percent said "too lenient", and 9.6 percent said they did not know: a 54.2 percent majority then backing the punishment or thought it should be stronger, in line with the coalition parties' view.
The result puts opposition parties - which all labelled the three-week ban disproportionate - in a difficult position.
Broken down by voting preferences, more than half of Labour's supporters (51.2 percent) backed leader Chris Hipkins' view the suspensions were too harsh, but a sizeable number thought the punishment fair (29.8 percent) or too lax (8 percent).
Greens supporters were more convinced with three quarters (75.3 percent) calling the punishment too harsh, but still 12.4 percent said it was about right and 3.8 percent too lenient.
Surprisingly, 9 percent of Te Pāti Māori's supporters also labelled it too lenient, although a clear 80.8 percent called it too harsh, with just 6.2 percent saying it was about right.
The results for the coaltion voters were more predictable, far more National, ACT and NZ First supporters saying it was too lenient, compared to those calling it too harsh.
But Speaker Gerry Brownlee, of the National Party, appears to be in the latter camp - he
called the punishments "very severe" and "unprecedented"
when setting down the original debate on Parliament's calendar.
He pointed out no MP found guilty of contempt had previously been suspended for more than three days. The Privileges Committee recommendation was also only backed by coalition parties, despite convention dictating the MPs on the committee should aim for consensus.
Those responding to RNZ's questions may have known these facts from media reporting - or they may not.
Bishop's postponement of the debate took the teeth out of opposition criticisms the government wanted to keep the punished MPs from commenting on the Budget - as it turned out, the co-leaders did not speak in the Budget debate anyway.
Budget delivered, MPs return to the debating chamber to discuss the punishment after Question Time today. The length of the debate rests ultimately in Brownlee's hands, and he has signalled a willingness to let it continue until all views were thoroughly aired.
Whether parties actually want to filibuster - given the poll, and the risk of voters' patience for politicians talking about themselves wearing thin - is far from certain.
Hipkins says a few of his MPs will speak, but they will not be running down the clock with endless speeches.
The Greens' co-leaders have said they think the MPs should not be suspended, and they plan to scrutinise the decision "to the highest degree".
But Te Pāti Māori is eager to put the matter to bed.
"Just got to hurry up and get it over and done with and let's sort it out, otherwise we'll be hanging around here waiting and waiting and waiting. Just, they've made their verdict - let's just get it done," co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.
This poll of 1008 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure a representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 23-30 May 2025 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. The report is available
here
.