New Zealand Parliament votes for record suspensions of 3 lawmakers who performed Māori haka

New Zealand legislators has voted Thursday to enact record suspensions from Parliament for three lawmakers who performed a Māori haka to protest a proposed law

New Zealand Haka Protest

New Zealand legislators voted Thursday to enact record suspensions from Parliament for three lawmakers who performed a Māori haka to protest a proposed law.

Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke received a seven-day ban and her colleagues from Te Pāti Māori, the Māori 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.