Latest news with #ParliamentProtest
Daily Mail
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Sky News host Chris Kenny tells off Pauline Hanson live on air
Sky presenter Chris Kenny has slammed Pauline Hanson 's impolite and disrespectful behaviour during parliament's Acknowledgement of Country. The four One Nation senators turned their backs in protest in the chamber when the statement of respect for Indigenous Australians was read out as part of the traditional ceremonial opening of Parliament on Tuesday. Hanson defended the action on Wednesday, saying she had been doing it for three years because she had had a 'gutful of this Welcome to Parliament every morning'. 'I have had enough and I do not want a Welcome to Country and to be disenfranchised from my own country that I was born here,' she said on Sky News. But Kenny jumped in, interrupting Hanson to say that he believed the ceremony was 'overdone', but that turning her back was 'impolite'. 'I think it's a really good initiative in the right place, at the right time,' he said, as Hanson sighed deeply. 'When you're opening parliament... it's just a respectful way to acknowledge the land that we all live on, and the people that were here first, and the culture that is ongoing. It's just polite.' But Hanson, visibly shaking in fury, repeatedly said 'No' to Kenny, adding that she was 'past being polite when I feel disenfranchised from my own country'. Kenny pushed back, interrupting again to ask the senator how she is disenfranchised 'just to recognise our history.' The senator claimed it was 'divisive,' diverting onto a tangent that children are 'indoctrinated' with the ceremony in schools. 'This is causing division, it's divisive. I'm not turning my back on the Australian people. That's why I'm doing it and that's why Australians are backing me—because they've got someone who has the guts to say we've had enough of this. 'This happens every morning before Parliament is sitting—if it's just the opening of Parliament I would accept that.' Hanson said she was not being disrespectful. 'I'm not turning my back on Australians. I'm turning my back on these policies and ideologies that are dividing our nation and the tokenism that's going on. 'I've been speaking about this for the last 30 years and look at the state of this country, it's in one bloody hell of a mess. I'm not pulling a stunt. I'm sticking to my values, my principles and what I believe in. I want to see a country united as one nation, not this division that's happening. 'I am Australian and I welcome people that are born here and people who actually come from overseas to migrate here -0 I welcome everyone that has a right to this land.' Later in the interview, Kenny raised the issue of hypocrisy, noting Hanson did not protest the Lord's Prayer, which was also read in the Senate on Tuesday. 'Not everybody in the Senate is Christian, yet people show their respect to that tradition,' Kenny said. But Hanson insisted that the Christian prayer is 'tradition.' '(It's) something that's done right from the educational system and it's been part of our history, Christian values that we have, and that's been part of it,' she said. '(It's) not something that's been made up, that's been pushed down our bloody throats. 'It's saying that we acknowledge these people as the traditional owners to repay them respect as the past, present and emerging. Why should I pay someone respect if I don't know who they are—because some of these elders I wouldn't give them the time of day. People have to earn respect.' Yawarllaayi/Gomeroi elder Barbara Flick Nicol told NITV in 2020 that a protocol to welcome and acknowledge visitors has existed among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for thousands of years. 'It's always been something that we did as a people, understanding and observing the fact that when you are in somebody else's country, that you acknowledge them,' she said. Welcome to Country ceremonies and land acknowledgements have been at the centre of a right-wing culture war after a group of neo-Nazis booed a Welcome to Country address during an Anzac Day dawn service in Melbourne earlier in 2025. Labor has backed Welcome to Country ceremonies, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday celebrating the tradition as a powerful way to begin the new parliament and reflect on Australia's history. Albanese also took a veiled swipe at the stance of former Opposition leader Peter Dutton and some coalition MPs who branded Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country proclamations as divisive and overdone. 'Like a lot of the more positive things about our nation, we shouldn't take it for granted,' Albanese said. 'It is not controversial today.' Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the ceremony 'set the tone as we re-commit ourselves to the taking of practical action to improve lives and expand opportunity for Indigenous Australians in every part of our great country'. Welcome to Country is conducted by Traditional Owners, while Acknowledgement of Country is a statement of respect for Traditional Owners and connection to land, which can be given by an Indigenous or non-Indigenous person.
RNZ News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Ex-speaker Trevor Mallard being sued by child over Parliament protest music
The former speaker of the House Trevor Mallard. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith Former Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard is being sued by a child over blasting repetitive bad music from loudspeakers during the 2022 Parliament protest and occupation . During the occupation, Mallard used the speaker system to play music and the sprinklers to try and deter protesters and move them on from the lawn. The lawyer for the child, Tudor Clee, confirmed to RNZ the case was filed at the High Court in Wellington naming the attorney-general and speaker as defendants. Clee said the case was in its very early stages and would be before a judge for its first callover on 7 July to deal with the name suppression, given the client is a minor. The case seeks a declaration that the child's rights were breached, as well as damages of $40,000 for three separate breaches. Clee said Mallard was being sued for two breaches of the Bill of Rights - the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel treatment and the freedom of association. The third is a tort - a civil wrong - claiming misfeasance in public office, where a public officer intentionally abuses their power, causing harm to another person. The lawyer said this was an unusual claim to file, but covered the intentional use of what he described as "military torture techniques" when Mallard set up loudspeakers to prevent protesters resting and sleeping. Lawyers for the attorney-general and the speaker of the House have been approached for comment. More to come.
Associated Press
05-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
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.
