OPINION: Your old mate was a little confused by Maori Party MP Rawiri Waititi’s stance over not wanting to wear a tie in Parliament’s debating chamber.
Waititi was booted out of Parliament on the first day back this month, after a dress code scuffle with Speaker Trevor Mallard.
As he was leaving the house, after being ejected by Mallard, Waititi said: “This is not about ties, it is about cultural identity.”
The Hound suggests Waititi may very well have had a valid point about the archaic rule around wearing neck ties in Parliament, which has now been relaxed.
However, he suggests if Maori Party co-leader is going to pull the old ‘cultural identity’ claim then he’d probably have more truck and ‘mana’ if he were not wearing his omnipresent, ridiculous-looking cowboy hat, which is hardly traditional Maori garb!