He said it was “unfortunate” it had impacted the “momentous occasion” of the settlement bill being passed and said there was some flexibility within the House’s rules relating to the actions of members in the public gallery.
However, Brownlee said there wasn’t sufficient communication between iwi, MPs and the Speaker’s office which meant the tikanga of those attending and the House wasn’t aligned.
He said Pugh was correct in interrupting Maxwell, saying greater clarity of the plans of members of the public gallery would ensure matters ran more smoothly.
Brownlee said it was “highly disorderly” of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori to demand an apology and said issues with the House’s actions or rules should be raised in the Standing Orders committee.
Leaders from Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori all rose to speak to Brownlee’s assessment, none of whom sought to challenge it.
However, Labour’s Chris Hipkins, Greens’ Marama Davidson and Te Pāti Māori’s Rawiri Waititi felt the mana of Te Whakatōhea wasn’t upheld by Pugh’s actions.
Waititi said while the matter might not breach the House’s rules, it was a “breach of tikanga”.
New Zealand First minister Shane Jones said the House’s rules shouldn’t be changed unless approved by the Speaker, warning those who would come to the public gallery to abide by them otherwise they would “strike problems”.
He felt the matter represented a “creeping level of change” in the House that hadn’t been mandated. Labour MP Willie Jackson was quick to describe this as “bloody nonsense”, citing how the House had gone through plenty of change in recent years.
The incident happened towards the end of the final reading of the Whakatōhea Settlement Claims Bill in Parliament yesterday. The bill aimed to redress historic treaty breaches by the Crown against Whakatōhea, including significant land confiscations and military actions against its people.
Speaking during the reading, Green MP Steve Abel described reading an account of these breaches and Whakatōhea’s land loss as making “one sick to the heart”. Waititi, who is of Te Whakatōhea descent, gave a karakia that Labour MP Jackson described as “absolutely exceptional”.
After the speeches had ended, Pugh called for the waiata by those gathered in the public gallery to mark the occasion and rangatira Maxwell began a brief whaikōrero ahead of it.
Pugh repeatedly called for order and tried to interrupt it, saying the waiata should be performed. As the waiata took place, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Waititi said across the House to the Assistant Speaker, “That was not good ... shocking”.
Multiple MPs in the House called for her to apologise then and there, including Waititi, Green Party’s Abel and Labour’s Jackson. National’s Chris Bishop called for the MPs to “dial down” and said he
Pugh has faced criticism for interrupting Maxwell’s whaikōrero from the public gallery in Parliament yesterday.
Multiple MPs, including Waititi, Abel and Jackson made points of order, calling for Pugh to apologise then and there. While this happened, large numbers of Whakatōhea and others stood in the public gallery watching.
When Pugh did not apologise, members of the public gallery said “shame” and “it’s not okay” as they left.
Speaking after the incident, Maxwell said what happened was a “misunderstanding of tikanga”. He said he wasn’t surprised, however “we Whakatōhea, we’ve faced much larger challenges than that” and that it didn’t take away from the settlement’s third reading.
“The main thing is that Whakatōhea is settled and all I wanted to do on behalf of the tribe was to acknowledge the kind words that were conveyed and to thank each Member of Parliament for their support and assisting Whakatōhea to get to where we landed to after 159 years since the confiscation of our land.”
Earlier today, Bishop, who is leader of the House and National minister, described yesterday’s incident as a “regrettable situation” in which the settlement’s passing was “marred a bit”.
He didn’t believe there was any ill-intent on the part of Pugh: “Basically, it’s a misunderstanding.”
Bishop confirmed he had spoken briefly with Pugh but wouldn’t outline what was said, saying that was a matter for Pugh.
