Mariameno Kapa-Kingi says Te Pāti Māori’s leadership has removed her from the role of party whip despite her enjoying the work.
The role is now listed on Parliament’s website as being held by Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Losing the job comes with a roughly $20,000 salary decrease.
Speaking to the Herald outside Parliament on Thursday night, Kapa-Kingi said she couldn’t speak about the decision but said “things are changing”.
She also addressed the controversial comments by MP Tākuta Ferris, saying her colleague’s wording “wasn’t as delicate as it could have been”.
As the Herald revealed yesterday, Ferris this week said in a social media video that it was “unacceptable” for people of other ethnicities to campaign to “take a Māori seat from the Māori people” and accused Labour of “erasing Māori”.
That followed Ferris last week sharing an image of Labour MPs and volunteers campaigning in the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection, with a caption reading: “This blows my mind!! Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā campaigning to take a Māori seat from Māori”.
While Te Pāti Māori disavowed Ferris’ initial remarks, the party hasn’t issued any public comment on his latest video. Parties across Parliament have condemned Ferris, while Labour and the Greens say they have received private apologies from Ngarewa-Packer.
Parliament’s website shows Kapa-Kingi’s time as party whip ended on Tuesday, which is when Ngarewa-Packer is listed as having taken on the role.
Te Pāti Māori did not respond to a request today from the Herald for comment.
A whip ensures their party has enough MPs in Parliament to vote on legislation or speak in debates. For a party with five or more members, like Te Pāti Māori, a whip earns $197,700 under the latest Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination. That compares with $177,600 for a regular MP.
Asked why she was no longer the party’s whip, Kapa-Kingi told the Herald: “I can’t speak to it.
“It’s a decision made by our leadership, and yeah ... I quite liked the work, but yeah. Things are changing.”
In terms of what was changing, Kapa-Kingi said, “just that one decision, just that”.
She said, “nothing exceptional” had prompted the decision, but “just a change”.
Asked how the party was currently going, Kapa-Kingi briefly paused.
“You know, we still have got things like, losing Takutai [Tarsh-Kemp] was a big thing, so those things don’t go away easily. Particularly, mostly, for her whānau. But we are certainly uplifted by the recent result in the [Tāmaki Makaurau byelection], so those things have got to keep us up going and doing the good work.”
On Ferris’ remarks about ethnic communities campaigning in the byelection, Kapa-Kingi said it “probably wasn’t as delicate as it could have been”.
She didn’t want to comment on the matter extensively but said there was a wider context and emphasised his point about it being a “Māori seat”.
Kapa-Kingi said she didn’t endorse the comments, but she wouldn’t say whether Ferris should apologise. She said there were people who supported Ferris, noting he was a colleague who she respected.
“He has had as many supporters going, ‘hey, the timing or even the way it was phrased, but we get the point you were making, this is a Māori seat’.
“As many people are saying, things sometimes just have to be said, and that is the way he did that.”
As to whether she believed it was right for Labour to have campaigners of different ethnicities volunteering in a Māori seat, Kapa-Kingi said: “You’d have to ask them ... Labour, they do it their way. That’s what I think.”
Among those condemning Ferris has been Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who said the Te Pāti Māori MP’s comments were “not fit for robust debate in the New Zealand political environment”.
“I think they’re going to create division. I just don’t think there’s any place for them.”
Greens’ co-leader Marama Davidson said there were “diverse communities, migrant and immigrant communities, who have been working hard to support tangata whenua”.
“This is harmful to those communities and to our kaupapa of kotahitanga,” she said.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.