New Zealand: Three Maori MPs suspended over 'intimidating' haka

New Zealand's parliament has voted to suspend three Māori MPs for their protest haka during a sitting last year, the BBC reports.

Opposition MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who started the traditional dance, was suspended for seven days, while her party's co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were banned for 21 days.

The MPs did the haka when asked if their Te Pāti Māori or Māori Party, supported a bill that sought to redefine the country's founding treaty with Māori people.

The Treaty Principles Bill has since been voted down but it drew nationwide outrage - and more than 40,000 people protested outside parliament during the bill's first reading in November last year.

We have been "punished for being Māori", Ngarewa-Packer told the BBC. "We take on the stance of being unapologetically Māori and prioritising what our people need or expect from us."

There were tense exchanges on Thursday as the house debated penalties, with Foreign Minister Winston Peters being asked to apologise for calling Te Pāti Māori a "bunch of extremists" and saying the country "has had enough of them".

"We will never be silenced, and we will never be lost," Maipi-Clarke, who at 22 is the youngest MP, said at one point, holding back tears.

"Are our voices too loud for this house – is that why we are being punished?"

Last month, a parliamentary committee proposed suspending the MPs, It ruled that the haka, which brought parliament to a temporary halt, could have "intimidated" other lawmakers.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had rejected accusations then that the committee's ruling was "racist", adding that the issue was "not about haka", but about "parties not following the rules of parliament".

Following a heated debate, the suspensions handed out on Thursday are the longest any New Zealand lawmaker has faced. The previous record was three days.

New Zealand has long been lauded for upholding indigenous rights, but relations with the Māori community have been strained recently under the current conservative government Luxon-led government.