Wellington, Jun 5 (AP) New Zealand legislators voted on Thursday to enact record suspensions from parliament for three lawmakers who performed a Maori haka to protest a proposed law.Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke received a seven-day ban and her colleagues from Te Pati Maori, the Maori Party, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, are barred for 21 days.
Three days had been the longest ban from New Zealand’s parliament before.
They performed the haka last November to oppose a bill they said would reverse Indigenous rights. The protest provoked months of dispute among lawmakers about what the consequences should be. Thursday’s vote followed hours of fraught debate in parliament. (AP) PY PY
