Suspension Contentions Explained

What’s all this about a suspension? Is that like a red card send-off?

Just over half of Parliament’s powerful privileges committee has sin-binned Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders from Parliament for three weeks.

Just to be clear, being told to stay away from Parliament is meant to be a punishment, right?

Apparently so.

Is this worse than any other punishment meted out by Parliament’s powerful privileges committee?

Only by a factor of seven.

What did Te Pāti Māori’s members do to attract the seven-times-worse-than-anything-else ire of just over half of Parliament’s powerful privileges committee?

They performed a haka because they disagreed with legislation introduced by the Government.

And the just-over-half of Parliament’s powerful privileges committee who suspended Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders, where did they come from?

The Government.

That’s convenient.

It is if you are the Government.

What was so bad about the haka?

The powerful privileges committee said it “could have the effect of intimidating other members”.

Did they say it did have the effect of intimidating other members?

No, but apparently it could.

Is this the same type of intimidating haka that is frequently performed by fifteen hulking All Blacks in front of a bunch of Australians, and the Australians just stand there and take it?

Yes, except this time it was performed by a handful of MPs not noted for their hulkiness or bulkiness, in front of a bunch of New Zealanders who would have seen a number of haka before, of which exactly zero percent would have resulted in harm occurring.

What did powerful privileges committee chairperson and potential future National party leader Judith Collins have to say about this?