Lawyer Tania Waikato says Te Pāti Māori's haka on the floor of the House was not against the rules, and the Privileges Committee process that led to the suspension of the three MPs was a "political circus".
Waikato told Mata with Mihingarangi Forbes "there was nothing in those rules that said they couldn't do that haka, and said they couldn't go on to the floor. And that is one of the things that hasn't been exposed because we didn't get to have a full process."
Waikato, along with former attorney-general and National minister Chris Finlayson were co-counsel for Te Pāti Māori as they faced the Privileges Committee over their haka in opposition to the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill.
"One of the most galling things about the entire process was the allegation that this was intimidatory, and that the process that was adopted by the committee in considering what happened was framed in that way from the beginning. And in my 20 years-plus of being a lawyer, I have not seen a process adopted in that way that disrespected rules of natural justice.
"I was actually flabbergasted at the lack of respect that that body had for very, very basic rights that anyone who has been accused of any type of behaviour that could have a censure result, let alone a censure of that magnitude imposed on them should be given."
Tania Waikato. Photo: MATA / RNZ
Waikato argued the Privileges Committee was not following its own rules when it refused to schedule hearings at a time when co-counsel could attend, or allow the Te Pāti Māori MPs to present evidence in their defence, "even though that is provided in the standing orders themselves".
"Right from the beginning of the process they were not following their own rules and they were, I guess in my opinion, trumping up the charges. They're not real charges, but trumping up the charges to make them sound as serious as possible and to slant the outcome towards what we ended up with."
She was not Te Pāti Māori's lawyer before the haka, but she maintained she would have encouraged them to do it, saying extraordinary times call for extraordinary responses.
Waikato maintained while there might be an unwritten rule - or tikanga - of a way to behave in the House, there was nothing forbidding haka.
Photo: VNP/Louis Collins
Te Pāti Māori came in for some criticism for not appearing before the committee, a decision Waikato said came from the MPs themselves who believed they were not going to get a fair hearing and that the outcome was predetermined. They predicted it would be nothing more than a "political circus".
"Chris and I were up for it. We were absolutely keen to get in front of that committee and pull them up on all of these very basic fundamental rights that they were denying."
With the election roughly 18 months away, her immediate focus was helping people make submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill. Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour has previously characterised opposition to his bill as "meaningless" and represented nothing more than somebody "running a smart campaign with a bot". He later clarified that he was referring to "online campaigns" that generate "non-representative samples"
Waikato said they were real people, expressing real anger.
"My own submission template that I put up had over 8000 people access it. My friend Jordan had a submission template put up, you know, again, tens of thousands of people accessed it. So you know, we know the numbers… I've got the receipts… Just because you don't know who these people are doesn't mean we don't know who these people are.
"The thing about him making that comment, right now, while the submissions are on for that bill is just trying to preload because he knows we crashed that site on the first day, and then we crashed it again last week, because our people are out there. And they are working hard, doing the volunteer mahi to get submissions."
After helping people make submissions on the Regulatory Standards bill, Waikato said she will stand for Parliament at the next election.
Architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill, David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel
The Tauranga-based lawyer, who grew up in Te Teko, had been approached before but always declined. This time her 11-year-old son told her it was time - even then she was not convinced.
But seeing the "disgusting" and "racist" debate in Parliament as the House suspended three Te Pāti Māori MPs prompted her to tell her followers on social media that she was about to step into the ring.
"I was serious. And it wasn't a suggestion, it was in response to an offer."
While she will not confirm who she will stand for, "I'm talking to more than one political party" and she will run in a general seat.
"I did not expect the thousands and thousands of people that responded to my little hissy fit, because it was a reaction to what happened. I knew this was coming. I knew our MPs were going to be suspended. I was right in the thick of it the whole time.
"But I wasn't prepared for how deeply watching that debate and watching that vote affected me. Because it did. I felt something shift very deeply inside me when I watched that."
So what kind of politician will she be?
"I'm going to probably be the most difficult to understand and difficult to predict politician that you have ever seen, because I do things in accordance with what my tīpuna tell me. And I will never align myself to any particular organisation or any particular kaupapa if my yīpuna are not saying to me, 'That is tika.'
And that is what I will always do regardless of where I am, so it makes me difficult in some ways because I have a higher power to answer to. And I will not compromise that."
Photo: Te Māngai Pāho
Photo: NZ On Air
