Parliament's dress code debate was reignited on Tuesday as Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi entered the House, not wearing a European-style tie.
Waititi, wearing a hei tiki taonga around his neck, was denied the right to speak and eventually kicked out of the House by Speaker Trevor Mallard.
Parliament's rules require members to dress in "appropriate business attire". Currently this includes men wearing ties.
Mallard last year announced he would reconsider the requirement, saying he himself believed the tie rule to be outdated.
But ultimately he ruled that the dress standard would remain as that was the will of the majority of MPs.
"I wore a light grey suit with a white shirt, and my hei tiki made from Aotea stone, a blue type of pounamu - very rare - only found in Jacob's river down in the South Island," Waititi told Checkpoint.
"That was my tie. My taonga is my tie. It's my tie to my people, to our mana motuhake.
"Our people have worn these types of ties for generations, thousands of years. And it's time that Parliament, which was consented by my ancestors through Te Tiriti o Waitangi, recognised our right and freedom to express our own cultural identity, in a place that's supposed to be a place for democracy.
"If you see the way I was dressed it wasn't disrespectful, it was actually I think quite smart. I own to two consultancy businesses, and also our farming business on our family farm. And I never wear a tie," he said.
"I will wear a tie when I want to wear a tie. But I will not be forced to wear it.
"I will not be forced to be wearing anything that I shouldn't be wearing… Why are Pākehā making Māori dress like they want us to dress?"
The enforced dress code is hypocritical and an example colonial ways that suppress tangata whenua, he said.
"Parliament should be a place where we could freely practice our democracy and represent the people that voted us in.
"The majority of the people that voted me in are not business attire people… Let's cut the myth that everybody must wear ties. I've been overseas and met with corporate people all over the world. None of them wear ties, they're open-collared suit-wearing people, because ties are now outdated."
In 2020, Greens co-leader James Shaw had requested the rule requiring tie-wearing be relaxed. In response, Speaker Trevor Mallard took submissions from MPs on the dress code. In Parliament on Tuesday he said while he favoured making ties optional, most responses had been to keep the rule, which he had to enforce.
Mallard said the Māori Party co-leaders had not submitted on the business attire dress code.
"As the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa, we're still having to go to the white man to make a submission about how we should dress in a place that has been consented by my ancestors through Te Tiriti o Waitangi," Waititi said.
"If two of us in the Māori Party were to put in a submission to say we didn't agree with ties, that would get lost amongst the very system that keeps our people in second place: democracy.
"When it suits everybody democracy works, but when it doesn't suit everybody, you know, we get overpowered by the majority.
"[Mallard} released an email on 1 February saying that the 2017 review of Standing Orders supported members dressing in formal wear of the cultures they identify with.
"So I went in there, I walked into the House wearing my taonga, based on my understanding of the Speaker's email.
"It is more than just a tie or a taonga. This has everything to do with equality. It has everything to do with the colonial agenda that continues to force Māori to be like Pākehā."
