Parliament warned of dangerous precedent set by MPs' suspensions

Newsroom

2 days ago

'Vindictive', 'unprecedented', 'disproportionate', 'arbitrary' – some of the words used by opposition MPs to describe the punishment handed down by a majority of Parliament to three Te Pāti Māori MPs.
The MPs' Treaty Principles Bill haka was 'utter contempt', 'orchestrated' and 'breaking the rules', Government MPs replied.
Among the impassioned speeches and barrage of interjections was a considered warning from Labour Party MP and former Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe.
In a rare speech to the House, the senior Māori MP urged those from National and Te Pāti Māori to change their positions or risk setting a dangerous precedent that would see parliaments of the future 'without a doubt' reach for extreme penalties to punish opposition MPs.
On Thursday, Parliament's debate on the punishments recommended by the Privileges Committee resumed after being postponed during Budget week.
Last November, a collection of opposition MPs performed the haka Ka Mate in response to the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill, while the party vote was being counted. During the haka, four MPs left their seats, and Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, along with MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, advanced towards the Act Party.
The behaviour was referred to the Privileges Committee, which considers conduct of MPs and recommends any punishments it deems necessary. Parliament then has to vote on whether or not to accept the recommended punishment.
The committee has a tradition of reaching unanimous decisions – an acknowledgement of the influence of the committee, and the importance of reaching consensus on a decision that impacts the democratic process. But that didn't happen in this case.
While the Government members – who hold a slim majority – recommended a seven-day suspension for Maipi-Clarke and 21-day suspensions for both Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi, the Labour Party, Green Party and Te Pāti Māori each put forward a differing view.
Since then, opposition parties have questioned the rationale behind Government members – which include former deputy prime minister Winston Peters and Attorney-General Judith Collins – recommending this level of punishment (the longest previous suspension was three days).
On Thursday, the unprecedented nature of the punishment was again a central feature of the debate, and Rurawhe warned those on the other side of the House about the dangers of using their majority to impose such a penalty on a minority, opposition party.
'It's demonstrably clear to me that it is the Government that is punishing the members today, not the Parliament,' he said, pointing to the lack of consensus.
'That is a dangerous precedent.'
The interjections and barrage of retorts from across the House that had been a constant throughout the previous debates stilled as Rurawhe said the Privileges Committee would have a new precedent; a new range of penalties to use against members who erred in the future.
'You can guarantee that. You can also guarantee that governments of the day, in the future, will feel very free to use those penalties to punish their opponents.'
The Labour MP warned members opposite him that just because they sat on the government benches today, did not mean they would be there in the future. They too, could face this level of punishment from the parliamentary committee, now the doors had been swung wide open.
During Rurawhe's speech, Green MP Steve Abel could be heard yelling 'kangaroo court'. When it was his turn to speak, Abel referred to the suggested punishment as 'not only unprecedented—it is disproportionate, procedurally flawed and democratically dangerous'.
Meanwhile, Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said the decision by the committee was a 'blatant power play', which was 'parading in disguise at upholding process'.
'These dangerously precedent-setting, convention-destroying, consensus-ignoring, Tiriti-trampling, racism-whistling, democracy-mocking, narrowly supported recommendations from the Privileges Committee bring this House into more disrepute than any haka ever has.'
Throughout the debate, Labour went to pains to differentiate its position from Te Pāti Māori.
Those who spoke from Labour – including leader Chris Hipkins, Duncan Webb, Willie Jackson and Rurawhe – acknowledged Te Pāti Māori had knowingly broken the rules they'd signed up to, and agreed they needed to face a punishment that involved suspension for the co-leaders, but decried the process and outcome that followed.
As one of the two major centrist parties, Labour MPs called for moderation.
'I think, in order for this to move forward, two parties need to change their position: Te Pāti Māori and the National Party,' Rurawhe said.
Meanwhile, Labour's Jackson – someone who was often unyielding and had been kicked out of the House as a result on more than one occasion – called on Te Pāti Māori to compromise and apologise.
But Te Pāti Māori pushed back, with Ngarewa-Packer saying her party was not moderate.
'We are not the incremental party; we are the transformational party, because our people are hurting so much and so are our communities. We don't have the luxury of time to do this incrementally. We all came in and said that we would be the unapologetic Māori Party.'
Later, Waititi said those in Labour were constrained by being part of a 'majority Pākehā' party, and 'chained' to party politics.
Winston Peters talks tā moko and DNA
Speeches from most Government MPs were subdued in comparison, with members of Act, National and NZ First calling for respectful debate, respect for the rules and respect for others in the House.
Again, the Speaker of the House had ordered for the public gallery to be closed for the debate.
Meanwhile, Acting Deputy Prime Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters used his speech to call Te Pāti Māori MPs 'extremists who act with utter contempt and ignorance of the process that has been accomplished'.
When senior National Party ministers cleared the front benches soon after the debate kicked off, Peters moved from his new seat across the House to occupy in the Prime Minister's chair. Christopher Luxon was not in the House on Thursday afternoon – as was his usual practice – and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour was in the UK to argue the moot 'no one can be illegal on stolen land' at the Oxford Union debate.
On at least two occasions Peters alluded to the theory of blood quantum, asking both Tākuta Ferris and Ngarewa-Packer about their DNA: 'What is your DNA? Mr Ferris, what is your DNA, because it ain't by a majority Māori. Stop bull-dusting your people.'
At one point, Peters referred to Waititi's tā moko in response to an interjection from the co-leader: 'The one in the cowboy hat who hates colonialism – the one that's shouting down there, with the scribbles on his face; the guy that's got half the South Island hanging around his neck – can't keep quiet for five seconds.'
Waititi responded to Peters' comments, explaining his stetson belonged to his grandfather – a member of the C company or 'Ngā Kaupoi' (the Cowboys). 'And the scribbles on my face represent the many of our ancestors that have been the victims of state-sponsored terrorism from this House.'
Then Waititi held a noose aloft in the House. The co-leader acknowledged the prop might be confronting, then spoke about the disproportionate and wrongful punishment faced by his ancestors.
'Our tīpuna endured muskets, land wars, the theft of whenua, and being beaten for speaking our reo – a 21-day benching is nothing on their sacrifice.'
Rawiri Waititi and Winston Peters went head to head, with the Te Pāti Māori co-leader holding up a noose in the House. Photo: Laura Walters
Government MPs said one of the aggravating factors in the haka performed by Te Pāti Māori was what they considered an attempt to intimidate other MPs and their belief that when Ngarewa-Packer pointed to the Act MPs, she was simulating a 'finger gun'.
Both Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi said that was a misinterpretation; that the Government was perpetuating a myth of Māori violence. Labour leader Chris Hipkins has previously said he also believed that was what Ngarewa-Packer was doing.
'We haven't created the violence here,' Waititi said.
'We will not be silenced. We will not be assimilated. We will not be subjugated. And we make no apology for being absolutely unapologetically, unfettered, unbridled, Māori human beings.'
The co-leaders, along with Maipi-Clarke, spoke to media both before and after the debate, saying they believed this process and the outcomes showed the Privileges Committee was no longer fit for purpose, adding that the Government had abused its power in the committee for political gain.
It's not about haka
Takuta Ferris was the first to speak on behalf of Te Pāti Māori, and did so in defence of the haka.
The mana of taonga, like haka, would never be diminished, he said. 'Not by ignorance or bigotry, nor pettiness or spite; that the enduring heartbeat of our tīpuna, that pulses in the manawataki of every haka their descendants perform, will never be stopped.'
But Ferris said the debate was not about haka.
'It is not about a suspension. It's not about the interruption of a vote. It is, at its heart, about the fact that this House continues to ignore Te Tiriti o Waitangi, that this House continues to ignore Māori sovereignty, and that this House continues to ignore all of the constitutional rights that flow forth from those two things,' he said.
'You see, deep down, under layers and layers of intergenerationally refined colonisation and assimilation, this debate is about the eternal struggle for the survival of the Māori people and the survival of those people as Māori.'
Like Ferris, others agreed the debate was not about the haka.
Act MPs Parmjeet Parmar, Nicole McKee and Karen Chhour said the debate was not about haka, but about respect – respect for other people and respect for the office MPs held, and the duty that came with it.
'When I came to this place and I took the oath, I promised to abide by the rules of this House,' Chhour said. 'I may not agree with all the rules of this House, but I agreed to that when I stood here four-and-a-half years ago and took that oath.'
NZ First minister Casey Costello said the debate wasn't about haka, it was about the rules of Parliament, and Te Pāti Māori had knowingly broken those rules.
'Hana Maipi-Clarke is a glorious individual, but she was put forward in this issue … Choices were made in that. This was not a spur-of-the-moment issue. This was an orchestrated attempt, and that could have easily been facilitated within the rules of this House.'
It's a bit about tikanga
Meanwhile, Labour MP Arena Williams said the debate wasn't about haka, or even disorder, 'it's about that discomfort that happens when Māori protest in a way that the House hasn't learned to accommodate'.
Williams said it was a dark day for the Parliament. The world, as well as MPs' families at home, were watching.
'This is not the standard that we hold ourselves to. But let it not be the unravelling either. Let's learn from this. Let's bring tikanga into our practice. Let's do our best to understand it, so that we can represent the people who need us.'
The debate on the report took place against the backdrop of a broader discussion around the role of tikanga in Parliament. Te Pāti Māori argued in its written submissions to the Privileges Committee that tikanga needed to be considered when evaluating whether they had broken Standing Orders – the rules of Parliament.
'The haka that we performed in response to the introduction of the Treaty Principles Bill was not only a valid form of debate to this piece of legislative nonsense that sought to do violence to te Tiriti, it was also an action that was totally consistent with Tikanga Māori, the first law of Aotearoa,' Waititi, Ngarewa-Packer and Maipi-Clarke wrote in their joint submission.
'The coalition government laid the challenge to Māori first by taking this abhorrent piece of unconstitutional legislation to the vote. We responded to that challenge and we had a constitutional right to do so in the form of a haka as a taonga protected under Article Two of te Tiriti. The rules of this House, the Standing Orders and even the legislation passed by this house must all bend to the constitutional supremacy of te Tiriti.'
MPs from the governing parties have pushed back against this argument, saying that while tikanga does have a role in Parliament, the standing orders don't allow for what Te Pāti Māori did – interrupting a vote. They have said it is the fact of interrupting the vote, not how it was done, that was the problem.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee said he expected Parliament's Standing Orders Committee to look at how tikanga is reflected in Parliament, as part of its regular review of the rules. Photo: Marc Daalder
'One of [Te Pāti Māori's] arguments was that tikanga Māori and haka are not matters for the Privileges Committee to consider. On this the Committee agrees with them: it is not there to set or debate the rules of Parliament but rather to uphold the rules as they are, not as people may wish them to be,' committee chair and National Party minister Judith Collins said in her speech on the report before the Budget.
'It is not about the haka. It is not about tikanga. It is not about the Treaty of Waitangi. It is about following the rules of Parliament, that we are all obliged to follow and that we all pledge to follow.'
Even Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee, who called the proposed sanction 'very severe' and 'unprecedented', has grumbled about Te Pāti Māori's tikanga argument.
'It's hard to take seriously deep concerns about disrespect for the Treaty when there is such huge disrespect for the Parliament itself shown in that submission,' he told Newsroom in April.
However, Brownlee has also indicated support for reforming Standing Orders to clarify how tikanga Māori, including haka and other actions, can be integrated into Parliament's rules.
'I don't think that any one group inside New Zealand should be insisting that their way of doing things is the most appropriate for all, and that's why, on that basis, it is worth looking at the Standing Orders to see what changes might be necessary to reflect that wider interest in the proceedings of Parliament,' he said.
'On that basis, I think there is some consideration that needs to be given to the way in which an adaptive Westminster system, which is what we have with MMP, and the way in which every Westminster-based parliament is slightly different to reflect more of a particular country's needs and requirements. It's not an unreasonable thing.'
But there has been considerable confusion in the halls of Parliament about how, exactly, this reform might occur.
Work to consider tikanga began in the Business Committee, which oversees the day-to-day logistics of running Parliament, but it was decided this was not the right venue for the conversation.
Newsroom understands some parties expected Brownlee to set up a special group or committee to consider the issue, with many thinking Labour MP and former Speaker Adrian Rurawhe would (or was already) the chair.
On Tuesday, however, Rurawhe told Newsroom he hadn't heard anything about the effort from Brownlee himself.
'The last I heard was there was going to be an invitation to go to Standing Orders Committee, but that hasn't happened yet. I think it's at more of an intent stage than actually progress being made. My name's been mentioned quite often, mostly incorrectly,' he said.
However, previous attempts to extract information and context from Rurawhe, including on the work he is understood to have begun during his time as Speaker, had been rebuffed.
Adrian Rurawhe – a former Speaker and senior Māori MP – has joined a debate he could no longer avoid. Photo: Marc Daalder
The Standing Orders Committee oversees Parliament's rules and also reviews the full rule-set each term. It's not clear whether the work would be a standalone item of business or wrapped into the regular standing orders review, which has yet to begin.
On Thursday, members of both the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori referred to a specific tikanga committee, while Labour's Jackson recommended Rurawhe be asked to lead the work in that space. However, they did not elaborate on this idea of a standalone group or sub-committee.
Brownlee this week declined an interview on the matter, but a spokesperson said 'the work is progressing' and confirmed the intended venue was the Standing Orders Committee.
But exactly what the confluence of Standing Orders and tikanga might look like is still up in the air. Moreover, this would be a big piece of work to get right and the clock was ticking with less than 18 months left in the Parliamentary term and a summer break in between.
If a review of how tikanga was incorporated or better reflected in Parliament was to be completed this term, all six parties would need to come to the table.
Given the tenor of the debate and the vast differences between party ideology, it was hard to see a scenario in which the whole of Parliament was able to agree on a constructive way to amend the laws of Parliament to reflect what the Supreme Court considered to be the first law of the land.
The message from Labour's Jackson was that it couldn't, really.
'Te Pāti Māori want to express our culture when the reality is this: this is a tikanga Pākeha place. That's a reality. There ain't no tino rangatiratanga here,' Jackson said last month.
Parliament was not the marae, but the challenge was to get Māori culture imbued in Parliament in order for tangata whenua to be accepted as a partner to the Crown.
While last month, Jackson described this as a 'challenge' and a 'journey', on Thursday, he appeared resigned to the idea that this would never eventuate.
'The reality is if you want to kōrero Māori you can speak Māori all day and night. You want to sing, if you want to do the haka, you can do all of that. Is it enough? No, it's not enough. But in terms of tikanga Pākehā, I think we have to accept that that's the reality of this place.'
Another vehicle for change
In lieu of a committee, made up of senior MPs from all parties, hashing out a different modern-day version of a Westminster system that more authentically reflected tikanga, Parliament's youngest MP was working on another possible avenue.
Last month – the day the Privileges Committee debate was supposed to take place – Maipi-Clarke submitted a member's bill to the ballot, which would include Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the Constitution Act, mandate that all MPs undertake training in respect to te Tiriti o Waitangi, and that Parliament develop and maintain a te ao Māori strategy.
Speaking in the House on Thursday, Maipi-Clarke's described herself as 'a quiet person by nature'.
She acknowledged that she had been largely absent from the debate on this issue since she initiated the haka last November.
'I came into this House to give voice to the voiceless,' she said – her voice catching with emotion. 'Is that the issue here? Is that the real intimidation here? Are our voices too loud for this House? Is that the reason why we are being silenced? Are our voices shaking the core foundation of this House, the House we had no voice in building?'
Maipi-Clarke said it wasn't a 'left or right issue'. 'This is about getting the foundations right first, to move forward as a country.'
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke initiated a haka last November that set this six-month process in train. Photo: Sam Sachdeva
On Thursday evening the 22-year-old MP picked up her packed bags and left the Parliamentary precinct alongside her co-leaders, MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp and party staffers and supporters. But before that, she said that until te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations were understood and entrenched Parliament would continue having this debate.
The process has lasted more than six months, from when the haka was performed in November to when the members were referred to the Privileges Committee in December, through the hearing and deliberation process to when the report was released in May and then to the final debate and vote in June.
In the final 45 minutes of the debate in Parliament, party members moved around the House with MPs and party whips from governing and opposition parties hunching beside seats, talking in hushed tones.
If the debate had not concluded on Thursday, it would have resumed at the end of June. All parties decided they wanted to draw a line under this and move on.
In the end, the governing parties voted to accept the committee's recommendations, without compromise.