Te Pāti Māori haka: A balancing act for Labour as National seeks end to controversy
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
Analysis
: More than six months after Te Pāti Māori's hair-raising haka protest in Parliament, the saga has at last come to a close - but it foreshadows further fault lines ahead.
Government MPs endorsed the verdict as expected - a 21-day suspension for the co-leaders and seven days for Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke - after what was a fiery but fairly brief debate on Thursday afternoon.
In the end, suggestions of a drawn-out affair - or a form of filibuster - came to nothing: after just three hours, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi called time himself.
Inside the debating chamber, it was loud, fractious and sometimes ugly.
Te Pāti Māori put up
a defiant defence of its MPs' actions
, enthusiastically backed by its friends in the Greens.
All three individuals in the gun argued they had no choice but to act in the face of an attack on Te Tiriti.
"I will not apologise for my actions," said Maipi-Clarke. "We will wear this unapologetically," declared Ngarewa-Packer.
"We will not be silenced. We will not be assimilated. We will not be subjugated," concluded Waititi.
The National Party all but ghosted the debate, with only Chris Bishop standing to make a brief contribution: "Let's end this issue once and for all... and get back to the major issues facing this country."
Chris Bishop during the debate.
Photo:
VNP/Louis Collins
It was a calculated non-engagement, a judgement that while many New Zealanders may be unimpressed with Te Pāti Māori's behaviour, they perhaps aren't enthused by politicians engaging in slanging matches either.
Coalition partners ACT and New Zealand First showed no such qualms.
With ACT's David Seymour abroad - taking part in the renowned Oxford Union debate - it was left to his colleagues Parmjeet Parmar, Nicole McKee and Karen Chhour to hammer Te Pāti Māori for "playing the race card", "bullying" and "stand-over tactics".
NZ First leader Winston Peters
unleashed a barrage of insults
, at one point labelling Waititi an "extremist" with "scribbles on his face".
And he levelled a warning to Labour about defending the minor party.
"I hope that some sober, conservative, right-thinking Māori people in the Labour Party will wake up before it's too late," Peters said.
"[Te Pāti Māori] has left middle New Zealand a long time ago, and the Labour Party is going to leave them hanging in the wind too."
No doubt those comments were weighing on Labour MPs' minds as they challenged the punishment as "disproportionate" without endorsing Te Pāti Māori's rule-breaking.
Four of its MPs spoke in yesterday's debate, arguing the penalty was excessive and a dangerous precedent.
But they also gently chided Te Pāti Māori for its approach. Senior MP Willie Jackson suggested: "a sorry wouldn't go amiss."
Senior Labour MP Willie Jackson
Photo:
RNZ/Samuel Rillstone
And former Speaker Adrian Rurawhe cautioned: "When you come into this House, you swear the oath... you agree to the rules of this House. You can't have it both ways."
Labour leader Chris Hipkins' recent comments also tell a story. Speaking to RNZ last week, he questioned Te Pāti Māori's choice of priorities, a line aimed squarely at centrist voters who might support Māori aspirations but baulk at Te Pāti Māori's tactics.
The RNZ-Reid Research poll out this week also helps to explain Labour's caution.
A clear majority of voters - more than 54 percent - said the 21-day ban was either appropriate or not harsh enough.
Among Labour supporters specificially, that number was 38 percent. That is a sizeable proportion of voters, and a bloc Labour needs to hold if it is to have any hope of reclaiming government.
The severity of the punishment is undeniable, unprecedented in scale, seven times longer than any previous suspension.
Certainly, it is an uncomfortable image: a government using its majority to strip a minority opposition party of its voice in the debating chamber.
Opposition MPs used their speeches to lay out a litany of past offences that earned milder rebukes: the infamous Trevor Mallard-Tau Henare punch-up among them.
But, as with all comparisons, each crime is different in its own way. Government MPs point to Te Pāti Māori's repeated refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing, right down to the final debate.
They argue the punishment is not about silencing dissent, but defending institutional integrity.
On current polling, it is clear Labour will need Te Pāti Māori's support to form a coalition, and this week's debate should act as a clear illustration of the potential difficulty with that.
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