But when she agreed to enter Parliament, surely she is agreeing then to the rules and conventions that govern Parliament. Her maiden speech focused on the importance of te reo and that we must respect and honour everybody, despite the colour of their skin, despite the language that they speak. All well and good.
But the message was marred by a number of violations of House rules. Her maiden speech ran well over time, causing clear frustration for Speaker Gerry Brownlee. Maiden speeches are allocated 15 minutes of Parliament's time, and Kaipara's went well over that.
"This is not on," the Speaker thundered, as he rang the bell for a third time to signal she had run out of time for her speech. I have no doubt she felt moved to tell the House and her supporters what it had taken to get her there, what inspired her, her reason for being there.
But every maiden MP has a story. Every maiden MP from every party has a group of people who have guided them to where they are today and their very, very real reasons for being there. Kaipara's are important, but no more important than any other MPs from any other party in the House.
Then, after a waiata and a haka followed her overlong speech, Gerry Brownlee had enough and suspended the House. He had given permission for a waiata, but not a haka. Permission has to be sought before you can do either. And before anyone jumps up and down and says a haka should be able to be performed anytime, anywhere, whenever the wairua takes you, rules are rules, man.
As Brownlee put it, when the House resumed after half an hour, "We have a protocol here. This is our tikanga. That tikanga is based on agreement." He said there'd been no agreement for the haka, nor for the speech to go on and on as it did. And he said he was going to investigate whether the haka had been spontaneous —I suspect it was, that's what you do at graduation ceremonies and the like and as a sign of enormous respect— or planned by a political party. He says for people to decide they are not going to participate in that process, they put themselves very firmly in contempt of Parliament.
Would Te Pāti Māori members accept breaches of protocol on the marae? Continued breaches of protocol? I doubt it – especially if they were deliberate. Ignorance you can kind of accept. It's annoying that people don't know the rules of your church or your golf club or your marae or your Parliament, but hey ho, that's life. Gentle correction and people are back on course. Continual breaches, when you know better, it's a different story. That's contempt. If a person or a group of people continually stick two fingers to your organisation and the way you do things, would you keep them in that organisation?
So what does the Speaker do about Te Pāti Māori, who have made it abundantly clear time and time again that they simply do not respect the values and the rules of Parliament?
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
But the message was marred by a number of violations of House rules. Her maiden speech ran well over time, causing clear frustration for Speaker Gerry Brownlee. Maiden speeches are allocated 15 minutes of Parliament's time, and Kaipara's went well over that.
"This is not on," the Speaker thundered, as he rang the bell for a third time to signal she had run out of time for her speech. I have no doubt she felt moved to tell the House and her supporters what it had taken to get her there, what inspired her, her reason for being there.
But every maiden MP has a story. Every maiden MP from every party has a group of people who have guided them to where they are today and their very, very real reasons for being there. Kaipara's are important, but no more important than any other MPs from any other party in the House.
Then, after a waiata and a haka followed her overlong speech, Gerry Brownlee had enough and suspended the House. He had given permission for a waiata, but not a haka. Permission has to be sought before you can do either. And before anyone jumps up and down and says a haka should be able to be performed anytime, anywhere, whenever the wairua takes you, rules are rules, man.
As Brownlee put it, when the House resumed after half an hour, "We have a protocol here. This is our tikanga. That tikanga is based on agreement." He said there'd been no agreement for the haka, nor for the speech to go on and on as it did. And he said he was going to investigate whether the haka had been spontaneous —I suspect it was, that's what you do at graduation ceremonies and the like and as a sign of enormous respect— or planned by a political party. He says for people to decide they are not going to participate in that process, they put themselves very firmly in contempt of Parliament.
Would Te Pāti Māori members accept breaches of protocol on the marae? Continued breaches of protocol? I doubt it – especially if they were deliberate. Ignorance you can kind of accept. It's annoying that people don't know the rules of your church or your golf club or your marae or your Parliament, but hey ho, that's life. Gentle correction and people are back on course. Continual breaches, when you know better, it's a different story. That's contempt. If a person or a group of people continually stick two fingers to your organisation and the way you do things, would you keep them in that organisation?
So what does the Speaker do about Te Pāti Māori, who have made it abundantly clear time and time again that they simply do not respect the values and the rules of Parliament?
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
She may have been radicalised by tepati so.they can use her. A bit similar to a school yard where the nasty kids use a weaker kid to break into the tuckshop for them or to steal the exam paper answers. That way the weak kid they are using gets all the blame. She walked into parliament looking like she was a time traveller from 1800. Honestly do you know any maori people in 2025 who act like that? She made an absolute fool.of herself.
Why is gerry going on about tikunga of our parliament? What the heck is that? I don't have tikunga in my culture gerry. This is a western country and a western parliament.
My suggestion is that we give them their own marxist tribal state and parliament with Rawiri as dictator. The condition is that they pay for everything. Build a wall similar to the Berlin wall and they can't come back to the western side. All new zealanders get to decide which side they will go to. All the greens and hamas palestine protesters can go to to the marxist side. Win win for everyone.
What do we do about a Speaker who is silly enough to accede to the miscreant so and so's by using the term tikanga with relation to the house rules/protocol?
Kerre loses credibility writing Orini Kaipara is the type of person we want to enter politics. Between her disastrous Jack Tame interview and her behaviour in Parliament, any objective person comes away thinking the opposite.
I wait with bated breath for Time magazine to reopen its list of influential ‘young’ people in its next edition to include Oriini Kaipara with another ‘tears in my blue eyes’ eulogy dripping with syrupy sentimentalism on the haka by us democrat Deb Haaland.
Mr Speaker clearly takes his management style from his party leader and goes weak at the knees when confronted by Maori. Time for a replacement.
The Speaker is an embarrassment to Parliament. He is like a sportsman who keeps playing even when it is obvious to everyone except himself he is past his use-by-date
They have ignored the elephant in the room for so long , now its pooing on the carpet
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