Three Maori MPs suspended over 'intimidating' haka

New Zealand's parliament has voted to suspend three Māori MPs for their protest haka during a sitting last year.

Opposition MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who started the traditional dance, was suspended for seven days, while her party's co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were banned for 21 days.

The MPs did the haka when asked if their Te Pāti Māori or Māori Party, ed a bill that sought to redefine the country's founding treaty with Māori people.

The Treaty Principles Bill has since been voted down but it drew nationwide outrage - and more than 40,000 people protested outside parliament during the bill's first reading in November last year.

We have been "punished for being Māori", Ngarewa-Packer told the BBC. "We take on the stance of being unapologetically Māori and prioritising what our people need or expect from us."

There were tense exchanges on Thursday as the house debated penalties, with Foreign Minister Winston Peters being asked to apologise for calling Te Pāti Māori a "bunch of extremists" and saying the country "has had enough of them".

"We will never be silenced, and we will never be lost," Maipi-Clarke, who at 22 is the youngest MP, said at one point, holding back tears.

"Are our voices too loud for this house – is that why we are being punished":[]}