Watch: New Zealand parliament disrupted by Haka protest

To New Zealand, where parliamentary proceedings have become rather, er, heated during discussions on the Treaty Principles Bill. During a debate about the relationship between Māori and the crown tabled by the libertarian Act Party — in which the minority coalition partner is seeking to remove principles from the treaty of Waitangi that protect Māori rights — parliament was suspended after Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke led a haka in opposition to the bill. It’s certainly one way to protest…

But anger at the debate is not merely contained inside the chamber. Thousands of people across the country are joining a nine-day march to parliament in a public backlash to the bill, while more than forty of the nation’s top lawyers have written an open letter to New Zealand’s PM Christopher Luxon, urging him to abandon the bill. Golly.

Act’s leader David Seymour insists the principles “afford Māori different rights from other New Zealanders,” adding: “The purpose of this bill is break this parliament’s forty-nine years of silence to define the principles in law so it is crystal clear what the treaty means to modern New Zealanders.” But it seems he hasn’t managed to convince everyone of that quite yet…

Watch the clip here:

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.