May 12, 2023
Westminister tikanga not right for Aotearoa says Waititi
Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi says he shouldn’t be bound by tikanga and standing orders developed for the Westminster parliament in England.
Mr Waititi and co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were ordered out of the chamber this week by Speaker Adrian Rurawhe after they accompanied newly independent MP Meka Whaitiri in with a whakawaatea, without securing the prior support of all other parties.
He says their job is to uphold their own tikanga.
“We’ve got English tikanga, I mean English as in England, tikanga determining how we operate, how we uphold our own tikanga here in Aotearoa. That’s not good enough. And so we do it anyway. I don’t care what your rules say, what your law says. If we’ve got thing to do and we’ve got to do things that ensure that our taonga tuku iho are upheld that our tipuna have left us, I will continue to do that regardless of where I am,” Mr Waititi says.