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WELLINGTON: A New Zealand Maori leader who was expelled from parliament this week for refusing to wear a tie in the chamber said that forcing him to follow a Western dress code was a violation of his rights and an attempt to suppress indigenous culture.
On Tuesday (February 9), spokesman Trevor Mallard twice prevented Rawiri Waititi from asking questions in the debating chamber, insisting that MPs could only ask one question if they were wearing a tie.
When Waititi continued with his question after being detained a second time, Mallard ordered him to leave.
“It’s not about ties, it’s about cultural identity, buddy,” Waititi said as he left the camera.
New Zealand’s parliament is the most inclusive ever elected in the country. Almost half of the 120 seats in parliament are held by women.
It has 11% LGBT representation and 21% Maori representation. Parliament saw its first deputy of African origin and Sri Lankan origin after last October’s elections.
Waititi, who has called ties “a colonial tie,” was told last year that he would be kicked out of the House if he didn’t wear one. On Tuesday she wore a taonga, a Maori greenstone pendant.
Mallard said Tuesday that while the links were out of date in his opinion, an overwhelming majority of members called for the rule to be kept in consultations on the subject in recent months.
Waititi wrote in the New Zealand Herald on Wednesday, saying his action was not about ties, but about the right of Maori to be Maori, whether in Parliament or in the pub.
“I took off my colonial tie as a sign that I was continuing to colonize, suffocate and suppress Maori rights that Mallard suggests gives us all equality,” Waititi said.
“This is about more than the tie or the taonga, this has everything to do with equality.”
When asked to comment, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was not something she had a strong opinion on and that she had no objection to whether or not someone wore a tie in parliament.
“There are much more important issues for all of us,” Ardern said.
