Labour MP Willie Jackson was ordered to leave the House of Representatives this morning after he refused to sit down when directed by assistant Speaker Greg O’Connor.
Jackson was giving a speech during the third reading of the Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Ranginui Claims Settlement Bill on Thursday.
Jackson said he had met with visitors from Ngāti Ranginui and praised the unity and kōrero at the hui, while also challenging the Government to do more for Māori in housing, health and education.
He then said the Waitangi Tribunal, Māori health services, and the Treaty of Waitangi were “under attack”.
O’Connor asked Jackson to get back on topic and discuss the bill being debated.
The senior MP said he was discussing the bill and its ramifications, saying “you can’t just apologise for the past and forget what’s happening now”.
He was then directed to sit down by O’Connor, to which Jackson replied: “No, I’m not sitting down, you don’t walk over our kaupapa as it suits you, Mr Speaker.”
“Leave the House, Mr Jackson,” O’Connor said.
Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said O’Connor was “out of line” in using his power to stop kōrero about Te Tiriti.
“This kaupapa is about Te Tiriti. That is the only way that this settlement has come into the House.”
Speaking to 1News after being kicked out of the House, Jackson conceded he “probably should have sat down” but that he was “disappointed” to be asked to leave.
He said he was “surprised” that O’Connor deemed him to be off-topic.
“I was saying what our people were saying.”
Asked what he meant by his statement “you don’t walk over our kaupapa”, Jackson said: “You can’t just ignore what’s happening in terms of what the Government’s doing. We’ve got an attack on Māori every week now, whether it’s a tribunal, whether it’s a treaty, whether it’s Māori health, Māori education.”
The bill passed its third reading after Jackson had been ejected, settling a 17-year negotiation claim with iwi of Tauranga.
“While no settlement can fully compensate for the Crown’s injustices towards Ngāti Ranginui, I sincerely hope this redress package will support Ngāti Ranginui to realise their economic and cultural aspirations for generations to come,” said Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith.
Key elements included financial and commercial redress of $38 million, the return of 15 sites of cultural significance, two properties of cultural significance vested jointly with other iwi and relationship redress with key Crown agencies.
‘House of chaos’ – Peters
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says Parliament has become a “house of chaos” in a social media post this morning.
The post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Peters urged that standards “must be restored” and said he had never seen “this level of degradation of our democracy in my many years of politics”.
“For a long time we have warned that the standards have begun slipping in the House – as former Labour Minister Steve Maharey also wrote about in a Herald article last year.
“From relaxing the dress standards in our House to now having utter disorder and the worst of offensive words uttered in question time – no matter which side of opinion you’re on – and with no reaction or repercussion.”
Peters said there were “out of control” MPs who flouted rules and intimidated others with “outrageous hakas” and “offensive language”
These were references to Te Pati Māori MPs Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s record-breaking suspensions and Brooke van Velden’s use of the word c*** in the House yesterday.
“Parliament has morphed into an embarrassment to the very people we are here purporting to represent.”