Labour MP Clare Curran kicked out from New Zealand’s Parliament for wearing rugby outfit
Clare Curran, a Labour party Member of Parliament, was excluded from New Zealand’s Parliament House for wearing a local Super Rugby team, Highlanders, outfits on Tuesday, June 7. The lady member was dressed in a Highlanders green stripe shirt because she was scheduled to be interviewed by a Radio sports program. Curran told the media after being excluded from the house that she promised a Radio channel to wear Highlanders shirt for the interview.
The interview was scheduled after the adjournment of House but the Honourable Speaker of the house, Dr Lockwood Smith, did not allow her to sit in the house in an inappropriate dress. The MP tried to represent her Dunedin based rugby conference before the radio station but her gesture was considered unacceptable by the house.
The Highlanders are a famed professional rugby team from Dunedin, a province of New Zealand. The region has a rich history of rugby and there are many famous venues of rugby in the province. The sport is played in Carisbrook stadium in Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown for international and domestic tournaments.
The Highlanders derby was formed in 1996 and made its Super Rugby debut in the Super 12. The derby ended the season with an average performance in its maiden campaign. They qualified for the semi-final stages three times consecutively in 1998 to 2000. Their best performance in the so far played seasons was witnessed in 1999 when they qualified for the final but lost to the Crusaders.
Giving the details of her exclusion from the house, Curran told media that Mr Smith was too harsh on the issue. She called the decision an “over reaction” by the speaker and said, "There's a lot of feeling in Dunedin about the changing of the brand and I got behind it last week when I really couldn’t understand why the brand was being changed, what the rationale was for it and questions about whether there was a plan to move the franchise north."
Meanwhile speaker Smith told Curran that Parliament House cannot allow someone to advertise any brand inside its premises.
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