New Zealand parliament suspends three Maori Party politicians over haka protest

New Zealand legislators have voted to enact record suspensions from parliament for three politicians who performed a Maori haka to protest over a proposed law.

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke received a seven-day ban and the leaders of her political party, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, were barred for 21 days.

Three days had been the longest ban for a politician from New Zealand’s parliament before.

The lawmakers from Te Pati Maori, the Maori Party, performed the haka, a chanting dance of challenge, in November to oppose a widely unpopular bill, now defeated, that they said would reverse Indigenous rights.

The protest drew global headlines and provoked months of fraught debate about what the consequences for the politicians’ actions should be and the place of Maori culture in Parliament.

A committee in April recommended the lengthy bans. It said they were not being punished for the haka, but for striding across the floor of the debating chamber toward their opponents while doing it.

Judith Collins, the committee chair, said the behaviour was egregious, disruptive and potentially intimidating.

Ms Maipi-Clarke, 22, rejected that description, citing other instances when legislators have left their seats and approached opponents without sanction.

The suspended legislators said they are being treated more harshly than others because they are Maori.

“I came into this house to give a voice to the voiceless. Is that the real issue here?” Ms Maipi-Clarke asked parliament.

“Is that the real intimidation here? Are our voices too loud for this house?”

Inside and outside parliament, the haka has increasingly been welcomed as an important part of New Zealand life. The sacred chant can be a challenge to the viewer but is not violent.

As Maori language and culture have become part of mainstream New Zealand in recent years, haka appear in a range of cultural, sombre and celebratory settings. They also have rung out in parliament to welcome the passage of high-profile laws.

Some who decried the protest haka in Parliament cited its timing, with Ms Maipi-Clarke beginning the chant as votes were being tallied and causing a brief suspension of proceedings. She has privately apologised for the disruption to Parliament’s Speaker, she said.