By Mandy Te and Dan Brunskill
Te Pāti Māori plans to expel MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris from the party but not from Parliament, following a vote at its National Council meeting on Sunday night.
At a press conference on Monday morning, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the party’s national council voted “without opposition” to kick the pair out of the party’s caucus for “serious breaches” of its kawa (constitution).
Te Ao Maori News reported electorate representatives from Te Tai Tokerau were excluded from the vote, while those from Hauraki-Waikato and Te Tai Tonga abstained.
In response to the expulsion, Kapa-Kingi says she will challenge and appeal the decision while Ferris called the decision "plainly unconstitutional".
The pair, who represent Te Tai Tokerau and Te Tai Tonga, will still be able to sit in Parliament as independent electorate MPs but won’t vote or share their budget with Te Pāti Māori.
Ngarewa-Packer says the decision follows six weeks of “rigorous process” after which “irreconcilable differences remained”.
The party’s internal dissent surfaced during the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election after Ferris refused to apologise for a social media post described as “racist”.
This was followed by an announcement in October from Toitū Te Tiriti spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi (who is the son of Mariameno Kapa-Kingi) that the movement would be severing ties with Te Pāti Māori, alleging to Te Ao Māori News a clash of values and leadership concerns.
Alongside this, MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi was accused of overspending her electorate budget. At the time, Kapa-Kingi told the media her electorate budget has "not ever been overspent".
There’s also been calls for Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere to resign. Critics complain the Tamihere family hold too much sway over the movement, which is meant to represent all Māori.
Rawiri Waititi is married to Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, the daughter of the party’s president. She is a key figure in the party and the Toitū Te Tiriti movement behind the scenes.
Internal tensions stem from this tight circle of control and disagreements over whether other political groups, such as Labour and the Greens, can represent Māori in Parliament.
Some in the party believe only Te Pāti Māori represents kaupapa Māori and are willing to sacrifice short-term political wins to avoid compromise. Others favour a broad coalition focused on unseating the Coalition Government quickly.
During the internal tussle, Te Pāti Māori co-leaders have emphasised that forming a coalition with Labour and the Greens is their top priority, while Ferris has been more outspoken on Māori independence.
Māori voters are strategic. They backed Te Pāti Māori candidates in six of seven electorates but gave most of their party votes to Labour. The party's near-sweep of electorates and active volunteers suggest strong underlying support in the community.
Legally, the co-leaders have the power to expel Ferris and Kapa-Kingi from Parliament, under the waka jumping rules, but doing so would trigger a by-election that could potentially split the vote and hand Labour an easy win.
Serious and constructive conversations with Labour and the Greens
Speaking to the media on Monday, Ngarewa-Packer said the decision to expel Kapa-Kingi and Ferris was not taken lightly.
“Many hoped the end would be reconciliation. It could not be achieved. We acknowledge the mamae (hurt) our people have felt and we thank our national council for upholding our kawa in the best interest of our movement throughout.
“This internal matter should never have played out in public. It has been an unnecessary distraction at a dark time for our country as this Government continues its relentless attacks on our people,” Ngarewa-Packer says.
Waititi says: “Our job is to make this a one-term Government. That requires discipline, structure, fortitude and unity. We cannot and will not allow anyone in this waka to sabotage the work and sacrifice that so many have given.”
Waititi says Monday marks one year since hīkoi mō te Tiriti - where Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti and Tangata Moana stood together against the Treaty Principles Bill.
“That is what happens when we are unified and purposeful. That is the standard we expect. We have begun serious and constructive conversations with the Labour Party and the Green Party,” he says.
“Our people on the streets and in the polls have told us they want a government led by our three parties at the helm. We will work to deliver that outcome”.
When asked by the media about the breaches of the kawa, Ngarewa-Packer said the breaches were about the standard they expect from their members.
While the MPs have been expelled from the party, they have not been expelled from Parliament with Ngarewa-Packer saying that’s where it sits today from the national council.
She reiterated that the party is run by its national council and every decision sits with them.
When asked if fellow MPs Oriini Kaipara and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke were on board with this decision, Ngarewa-Packer said all their executives were present and make up the national council - the MPs don’t vote.
“All of us are accountable to our electorates. It’s the electorates that have the mana and it’s the electorates that make the decision.”
When asked about Te Tai Tokerau and their involvement in the meeting, Waititi said for a long time, Te Tai Tokerau has stopped engaging in this particular process.
“We’ve been trying to have that conversation with Te Tai Tokerau,” Waititi said and a resolution was moved by the national for Te Tai Tokerau “to be able to reset, to allow us to have access and to allow us to have a clear pathway for conversations in the future”.
Ngarewa-Packer says no one invited these attacks but there has to be an end to it - and their people were calling for an end to it, and their electorates had made clear what they wanted.
“It doesn’t really come down to what Debbie or Rawiri feel. It’s who we’re here to serve and who put us here and that’s a decision that’s before us this morning,” she says.
“The reality is do I think that we’re ready to be in government, we are and that’s the decisions, that’s the pain of the decisions that we have to make now … The reality is what we’re contending with is the fact that we couldn’t all agree on where the movement needed to be.
“This was nothing else more than that and we weren’t able to reconcile it disappointingly.”
When asked if they were prepared for backlash amongst iwi Māori who would not like this decision, Ngarewa-Packer said they’re aware they’ll have to work hard to keep confidence, and to help electorates get set up and they’ll have to work hard to figure out who they’re going to put up next.
“It was really important to us as a movement and to Rawiri and I personally that we regain the confidence of Tangata Tiriti,” she says.
“They stood with us a year ago. They had the confidence in our movement and there’s been some damage not just to us. There’s been damage to those who believed in Aotearoa Hou and believe in Tangata Tiriti.
“We now want to go into that mode of repairing that confidence and showing them that we are true on being able to have an Aotearoa that is inclusive of everyone. That’s part of why the decision had to be made.”
Waititi says they will continue to have positive and constructive kōrero with Labour and the Green Party.
“The strategy is clear: make this a one-term government. We had to stop this debacle and ensure that our people have the confidence that we could make those hard decisions to ensure we could move forward.”
MPs respond
In a statement on social media platform Instagram, Tākuta Ferris says: “This decision is plainly unconstitutional, contrary to tikanga Māori and a direct affront to the values this movement was founded upon - manaakitanga, pono, aroha and kotahitanga.”
“The people of Te Tai Tonga gave me their mandate, and I will continue to serve them. No executive has the authority to strip the mandate of our electorate - that power rests with Te Tai Tonga alone.”
Ferris says alongside his electorate executive for Te Tai Tonga, he does not acknowledge the decisions “and illegal resolutions made through unilateral measures”.
“I reject this decision in the strongest possible terms.”
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi also took to Instagram, saying the hui last night “excluded both myself and the Te Tai Tokerau Executive despite repeated requests to attend”.
“A decision was made to remove me from Te Pāti Māori with immediate effect. This decision is unconstitutional and has no effect on my position as a Member of Parliament.”
Kapa-Kingi says she intends to challenge and appeal the decision.
Both Kapa-Kingi and Ferris are now independent MPs - they can legally challenge their expulsions through an appeal process.
2 Comments
The two expelled identities, and not the TPM party itself, have been elected to parliament by the constituents of their respective electorates. This is where the waka jumping legislation entangles itself. To oust elected members of parliament simply because their position has become disagreeable to their political party would be a dismantling of one of the founding principles of our democratic process.
Yes. the waka jumping legislation is flawed & should only apply to list MPs who are there by grace of the party vote & it's internal selection process.
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