As is often the case, it is Te Pāti Māori which has vexed some of its colleagues, the root of the problem this time being its refusal to front up at Parliament’s privileges committee.
All members of Parliament are afforded what is termed "privilege" — the right to do and say certain things purely due to their position as elected representatives. The right to say almost anything they like within the House of Representatives debating chamber is but one of many examples.
But politicians are not so naive as to think the people who vote for them would be happy for them to act with reckless abandon. Privilege comes with strings attached — Standing Orders, Parliament’s rule book, sets out just how long the piece of privileged string is.
Standing Orders are enforced by the Speaker, and any potential breach of privilege can be referred by them to Parliament’s self-policing unit, otherwise known as the privileges committee.
It is a cliche of political reporting that the committee is called the "powerful privileges committee", but it actually is.
It can compel an MP to appear before it, suspend them, fine them and even expel or detain an MP, although it would have to be utterly egregious behaviour for that high barrier to be cleared.
However, Te Pāti Māori has taken a defiant step in that direction.
It will be recalled that three of its MPs — co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi and Hauraki-Waikato MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke — were referred to the privileges committee in the wake of the haka performed in the House at the conclusion of the first reading debate on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill — a contentious piece of legislation which Parliament voted down yesterday.
The haka in and of itself was a demonstration of the kind which MPs occasionally indulge themselves in. Speaker Gerry Brownlee might have been inclined to let the haka go as a useful release of the pressure valve on a tension-filled day, but it interfered with the conducting of a vote — an obstruction of parliamentary process he felt unable to ignore.
Senior Labour MP Peeni Henare also participated in the haka; he appeared before the committee last month, and although not exactly contrite he was suitably apologetic enough to be let off so long as he apologised to the House — something which he promptly and properly did.
The Te Pāti Māori MPs — with whom Mr Brownlee has had to be very patient with this term — have taken a very different approach to proceedings. Calling the committee a "kangaroo court" they chose not to attend the meeting called to deal with their conduct, the MPs saying they want to be questioned together rather than separately, and to have a tikanga expert, Tā Pou Temara, speak to the committee.
The committee might well have entertained the latter — MPs are entitled to bring representatives to privilege hearings — but the former was more problematic. The committee has to consider the individual actions of each MP, as each behaved in different ways which might have caused a breach of privilege
Committee chairwoman Judith Collins is a very experienced lawyer and she took a pragmatic decision when faced with this impasse: adjourn the matter and hope in subsequent weeks cooler heads prevail.
Te Pāti Māori does have an arguable case: the haka was a Māori response to a Bill Māori have a vested interest in.
But the House, like Māori , has its own tikanga — the standing orders. Te Pāti Māori may decry Parliament and its colonial trappings if it wishes, but in standing for election to the House of Representatives that was what they signed up to.
These are the rules all other MPs abide by, and flouting them would be contemptuous of their parliamentary colleagues, let alone the House itself.
Some of those who voted for Te Pāti Māori may well share a jaundiced view of Parliament and be cheering the MPs on.
But if those MPs are not there they are not representing the people who cast their precious vote for them and who wanted them to be in the House of Representatives to articulate those views.
Ultimately, it is to those people Te Pāti Māori are not showing respect.
