New Zealand Parliament suspended after haka protest
New Zealand’s Parliament was suspended on Thursday after a haka protest over a contentious Māori rights bill.
The landmark vote on the bill that would reinterpret a 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Māori was set to start on Thursday.
First signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Māori chiefs, the Treaty of Waitangi lays down how the two parties agreed to govern.
The interpretation of clauses in the document still guides legislation and policy today.
As parliamentarians gathered for a preliminary vote on the bill on Thursday, Te Pāti Māori MPs stood and began a haka, a traditional Maori dance.
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, the MP for Hauraki Waikato, began the haka after physically tearing up the bill in parliament.
Rulings by the courts and a separate Māori tribunal have progressively expanded Māori rights and privileges over the decades. However, some argue this has discriminated against non-Indigenous citizens.
The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the ruling centre-right coalition government, last week unveiled a bill to enshrine a narrower interpretation of the Waitangi treaty in law.
Protests on the streets
ACT New Zealand leader David Seymour said people who oppose the bill want to “stir up” fear and division.
The controversial legislation, however, is seen by many Māori and their supporters as undermining the rights of the country’s Indigenous people, who make up around 20 per cent of the population of 5.3 million.
Protesters at a rally in Auckland. (Picture: RNZ / Layla Bailey-McDowell)
Hundreds have set out on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand’s north to the national capital of Wellington in protest over the legislation.
They will arrive in Wellington next Tuesday where tens of thousands are expected to gather for a big rally.
While the bill has passed its first reading, it is unlikely to garner enough support to pass into law.
Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First are only supporting the legislation through the first of three readings as part of the coalition agreement.
Both parties have said they will not support it to become legislation, meaning it will almost certainly fail.
Reuters
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