Te Pāti Māori files complaint against Gerry Brownlee as coalition targets haka

Te Pāti Māori has laid an official complaint against the speaker of the house Gerry Brownlee following Tuesday’s Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti, Aotearoa’s biggest protest on parliament grounds.

Te Ao Māori News reported that the complaint comes as all three parties from the coalition Government have also issued a complaint against Te Pāti Māori co-leaders for doing the haka in parliament last week.

Parliament doors were closed to the public and unregistered parliamentary media, but Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngārewa-Packer said their staff were also declined entry.

“Some of them [staff] had children inside parliament they couldn’t get access to them,” said Ngārewa-Packer.

Packer claimed they were targeted because they were Māori and has made an official complaint against Gerry Brownlee.

Ngārewa-Packer said: “The Speaker has overused his power and has done a whole lot of things that he’s never done for other protests.”

The last time a speaker of the house made a move like this was during the anti-Covid mandate protests.

Then-Speaker Trevor Mallard took several controversial actions which included trespass notices against members of Parliament such as Winston Peters.

“We haven’t seen this type of behaviour other than Mallard did,” said Ngārewa-Packer.

Members of Te Pati Māori perform a haka in front of Act MPs during the first reading of The Treaty Principles bill in the house at Parliament. Photo / Adam Pearse

The complaint by Te Pāti Māori comes after last week’s haka in the house led by Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke during the first bill reading of the Treaty Principles Bill, where she was then given a 24-hour ban from Parliament.

But it was revealed on Wednesday afternoon the co-leaders had complaints made against them for their participation in the haka.

Ngārewa-Packer said: “Three government parties have lodged a complaint about Rawiri and I, and to be put to sanctions. I think we can’t help but wonder if that’s what the speaker is reacting and doing, losing his balance and biases in this discussion.”

Act leader David Seymour confirmed that there should be repercussions for the co-leaders.

“They think the supporters will back them more if they behave dishonourably within the house because their objective is to discredit the parliament and they’ve openly said they’d like to set up their own parliament. So the parliament needs a way I think of disciplining people,” said Seymour.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also agreed that Te Pāti Māori’s actions were wrong, saying: “There’s a range of emotions, there’s a range of views but we should really be able to be respectful of one another.”