95bFM Māori academic: Te Pāti Māori MPs suspension over Treaty Principles Bill haka is ‘unfair’
10 June 2025
Interview by Joel Armstrong, adapted by Sanat Singh
The University of Auckland’s Margaret Mutu says that the “unfair” suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs over their haka during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill is a result of the international attention the haka received.
Te Pāti Māori MPs Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke have recently been suspended from Parliament, with co-leaders Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi facing 21-day suspensions and Maipi-Clarke receiving a 7-day suspension.
The suspension was handed down by Parliament’s Privileges Committee to punish Te Pāti Māori for what they deem could be “intimidating” behaviour, following the MP’s haka during the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill last year.
Ngāti Kahu leader and Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland, Margaret Mutu, told 95bFM’s The Wire that the suspension is “not a fair ruling,” and is a result of the coalition government wanting to take revenge for the international attention the haka protest caused.
The haka received widespread attention through social media and has been covered by several major international media outlets. One post of the haka on TikTok by the New Zealand-based Māori media company, Whakaata Māori, received over 25.5 million likes and over 466,000 comments alone.
Mutu says the haka is a staple of New Zealand culture and its performance in Parliament was an “appropriate” response to the “gross insult” of the Treaty Principles Bill.
“A haka is the most appropriate response… you have to be living in a bubble that has nothing to do with this country to be intimidated by a haka.”
Mutu also believes that the punishment handed down is "unfair". She says Pākehā law commonly operates on precedent, and that this punishment is unprecedented in its severity.
“The precedent here was that [former Prime Minister] Robert Muldoon, after having already been censured once in Parliament, was censured for a second time and suspended for three days.”
She says this is especially true as this is not the first time a haka has been performed in Parliament.
“A haka has been performed in Parliament many times. I found a reference not long ago to Sir Āpirana Ngata having performed a haka in Parliament in 1937 when the Pākehā Parliament stole the petroleum resources of the country. He performed a haka.”
Mutu believes the international attention and virality of the haka led to the severity of the punishment. She explains that her monitoring of international coverage revealed a media environment that questioned why actions were being taken against Māori.
“[The media] started asking questions about what has happened to Māori and why are Māori doing this sort of thing. What it did was it highlighted the very racist approach that the New Zealand Parliament has always taken to Māori.”
New Zealand’s Parliament was established in 1854, without extensive consultation with Māori. Māori could not get representation in Parliament until 1868.
Mutu says that due to the sovereignty that Māori hold over the land, the establishment of a Parliament is illegal and has been used to subvert Māori voices.
“It has always been the case that ‘we don't want you in here. This is a Pākehā Parliament. We decide everything that goes on in here.’”
She believes that in the case of Te Pāti Māori MPs, the Privileges Committee has been weaponized to “attack the opposition”.
Mutu argues that this brings Parliament further into disrepute as rules to ensure “fairness are completely ignored by the government of the day”.
Mutu adds this ruling is a violation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“Kāwanatanga is the exercise of self-management over Pākehā to stop Pākehā lawlessness and to make sure that Māori are protected from anything that Pākehā may do. The Treaty is really, really clear about that.”
“So to have Pākehā say: ‘Māori, you didn't do what I told you to do, you don't behave yourself how I've told you you must behave, I therefore throw you out,’ that is a direct violation of Te Tiriti, they have absolutely no right whatsoever to do that.”
Mutu says that if Parliament incorporated tikanga, the meaning of the haka would be better understood.
“If Parliament knew anything about tikanga, you know that you sit and you face a haka that is being performed, you take on board the fact that you have grossly upset your hosts and you carry on. So, as far as I can see, in terms of the tikanga, in terms of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the point was made. You have grossly insulted us.”
