New Zealand MP trio handed record suspensions over haka protest
New Zealand 's parliament temporarily barred three Māori MPs for performing the haka to protest a controversial law, resulting in record suspensions for Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.
The suspensions, the longest in the country's history, were criticised by the suspended MPs, who declared that "Māori would not be silenced," and by the Labour party, which called the decision inconsistent with New Zealand's democracy.
The MPs performed the haka in parliament in November before a vote on a bill that would have reinterpreted the 185-year-old Treaty of Waitangi, with video of the protest going viral.
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke criticised the suspension as an effort to silence the Māori in parliament.
Judith Collins, the committee chair, defended the decision, stating it was about following parliamentary rules.
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