New Zealand Member of Parliament leads traditional dance, tears a copy of the bill in Parliament

On By Littum


New Delhi:

New Zealand’s youngest MP Hana-Rawhiti Kareariki Maipi-Clarke, who shot to viral fame after she performed a haka during her maiden speech in Parliament last year, is back in the spotlight after once again performing the traditional Maori dance and tearing up a copy of a controversial bill during a House session.

A viral video of the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill shows the 22-year-old Te Pati Maori MP interrupting the session by tearing up a copy of the legislation before performing a haka. She is then joined by the people in the public gallery, prompting Speaker Gerry Brownlee to briefly suspend Parliament.

The ACT New Zealand party, a junior partner in the country’s centre-right coalition government, last week unveiled the bill, which seeks to change some of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – a move opposed by many Maori.

First signed in 1840 between the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs, the treaty sets out how the two parties agreed to govern. The interpretation of clauses in the document still governs law and policy today.

However, the bill is seen by many Maori and their supporters as undermining the rights of the country’s indigenous people, who make up about 20% of the population of 5.3 million.

When the proposed bill passed first reading, hundreds of people embarked on a nine-day march, or hikoi, from New Zealand’s north to the national capital Wellington to mark their protest.

Coalition partners the National Party and New Zealand First are only supporting the legislation through the first of three readings as part of the coalition agreement. Both parties have said they will not support it becoming legislation.

“You are not negating, with one stroke of the pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that I think is very simplistic,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters before traveling to Peru to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Cooperation (APEC) summit.