Overview

• After Oriini Kaipara’s address, MPs and visitors sang a pre-approved Māori song before the public gallery launched into an unsanctioned haka, with some MPs joining.
• Speaker Gerry Brownlee instructed participants to stop and suspended the sitting when the haka continued.
• Brownlee later said he would investigate whether any party or MP knew the haka would occur and described the gallery’s actions as contemptuous.
• Parliamentary rules require permission for any singing or haka in the chamber or the public gallery.
• Kaipara, a Te Pāti Māori MP elected in September, spoke against the backdrop of June suspensions for three party members over a 2024 haka during debate on a Treaty bill that later failed to pass.