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Civility, Whiteness and Parliamentary Processes: The suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs


June 05, 2025. 


The New Zealand Parliament voted today to suspend for 21 days two MPs, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, the co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori, and for seven days the youngest MP, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, who had performed the haka in the Parliament in protest to the racist and divisive Treaty Principles Bill.

The Treaty Principles Bill, introduced by the right-wing ACT Party, is reflective of the Far-Right attack on New Zealand political economy, seeking to undo New Zealand's foundational document Te Tiriti O Waitangi.


Fundamentally based on disinformation, the Treaty Principles Bill communicatively inverts the narrative of equality--reflecting similar far-right attacks on equity, dressed up as equality--being witnessed globally.


In response to the introduction of the Bill (the first reading) in the New Zealand parliament, several Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed their opposition to the bill, with the Member of Parliament (MP) of Te Pati Māori Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke tearing a copy of the bill and then leading a haka in New Zealand parliament. Maipi-Clarke was joined by the co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, as well as the Labour MP Peeni Henare.


The MPs were referred to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, chaired by Judith Collins. In what appeared to be a Partisan decision, achieved without consensus, the Privileges Committee recommended that Maipi-Clarke be suspended for 7 days, and Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer be suspended for 21 days. It is critical to note here that the levels of punishment recommended by the Privileges Committee surpass manifold previous parliamentary punishments, including for acts that were violent in nature.

The politics of civility

After the recommendation, Judith Collins referred to the TPM Members of Parliament breaking the Parliamentary codes of civility. She drew attention to the need for upholding civility in New Zealand Parliamentary processes, and pointed to the lack of civility.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Collins stated, “There is a lack of civility now, and it’s unacceptable.”

She went on to suggest that the lack of civility underlies TPM's behavior in Parliament. Observing that the behavior of TPM she observed as unprecedented, Collins reiterated, "We've never had penalties like this in this Parliament before, but that's because we've never seen this sort of behaviour during a vote in the House. I've never seen anything like it. This was a very sad day for Parliament."


 

Whiteness and politics of civility


The politics of civility on display here is anchored in the organizing habits of whiteness. Whiteness upholds the values of white culture as universal, simultaneously obfuscating the white values that underlie accepted norms of communication and imposing these values as the defining logics that determine the games of participation.


Who gets to participate and who is excluded are therefore determined by the games of whiteness.


The haka, as an expression of Māori cultural values, in this context, may be read as the much needed expression that challenges the racism of the Treaty Principles Bill, seen as an attack on Te Tiriti.


The haka, as giving voice to the marginalised, as a voice infrastructure expressing the resistance of Māori and communities in solidarity with Māori, can be read as the precise and appropriate response to the divisiveness and white supremacy underlying the Treaty Principles Bill.


That the Parliamentary Privileges Committee and the Parliament targets the performance of the haka as a threat to the parliamentary codes of civility makes visible how out-of-step the organizing codes of the Parliament are to the registers of Te Tiriti. Turning to Te Tiriti as the foundational document of Aotearoa means that the very codes and organizing logics determining parliamentary processes need to be interrogated and re-imagined.

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