Court issues rare recall of Mariameno Kapa-Kingi judgment after request from Speaker Gerry Brownlee

Speaker Gerry Brownlee (second from left) with Act Party leader David Seymour (right) during a pōwhiri at Waitangi in 2025. Photo / Dean Purcell

In a rare move, the High Court has recalled the judgment that ultimately reinstated ousted Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and reworded several clauses at the request of the Speaker of the House, Gerry Brownlee.

Kapa-Kingi was expelled from her party last year after months of internal fighting but she he successfully challenged the legitimacy of her expulsion in court and, in a judgment released in March, was reinstated to the party.

Brownlee is not concerned with the outcome of the case but takes issue with the judgment’s wording, which he interpreted as a direction for him to take certain action that he believed was tantamount to the court intruding on the business of Parliament, which is Parliament’s jurisdiction, not the courts’.

The principle of parliamentary privilege in enshrined in the Bill of Rights Act as the “freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached in any court or place out of Parliament”. This Kapa-Kingi judgment raises questions of parliamentary privilege and comity, the principle by which the branches of government respect their various jurisdictions.

For example, in his judgment, Justice Paul Radich said the party “must now inform the Speaker” that Kapa-Kingi had been “reinstated to Te Pāti’s parliamentary membership under that Standing Order”.

Court documents obtained by the Herald and filed on Brownlee’s behalf in March said such directions were “the purview of the Speaker” and that “directions of this nature did not align with the principles of comity and non-interference”. This direction to the party also then “implicitly directs the Speaker to then take actions” to achieve the outcome.

Brownlee argued this was a breach of the principles of comity and non-inference, given there was “an implicit message” that Te Pāti Māori or the Speaker could be disobeying court directions should they not act in the way the court had outlined.

In a judgment released today, Radich agreed with the Speaker: “The steps that the Speaker might take, and the determinations that the Speaker might make, as a consequence of receiving the information from the respondents was a matter for the Speaker. There was no basis for the court to express a view on that.”

Radich has recalled the judgment and amended the wording of the clauses of concern. The updated judgment was reissued today.

Independent MP Tākuta Ferris (right) with recently reinstated MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The initial judgment said Te Pāti Māori “must now inform the speaker” that Kapa-Kingi was reinstated to the party. This has been amended to the court would expect Te Pāti Māori “would consider whether it would be appropriate” to notify the Speaker that Kapa-Kingi was now a member of the party.

This has no impact on the actual outcome of the case. Recalling a judgment is rare, even in cases that do not affect the outcome, but issues of parliamentary privilege and the potential impact on the relationship between the courts and Parliament would justify that step.

Justice Radich reiterated the outcome of the central judgment in March that the decision by Te Pāti Māori to suspend and expel Kapa-Kingi were unlawful.

Kapa-Kingi was elected to the Te Tai Tokerau Northland seat for Te Pāti Māori in 2023 after an unsuccessful attempt in 2017. Her electorate win was one of six for Te Pāti Māori amid an incoming wave of support for the party in the 2023 election.

But the party fell into turmoil last year amid allegations that implied its leaders were dictators (which the party has consistently rejected) and that Kapa-Kingi had brought the party into disrepute by misusing funds.

Internal fighting essentially split the party in two when Kapa-Kingi and Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris, who has backed Kapa-Kingi through the ordeal, were expelled for what the party alleged were serious breaches of the party’s constitution.

Te Pāti Māori said it respected the court’s decision and would be “repatriating” Kapa-Kingi back into the party.

Ferris has not challenged the expulsion in court. He currently holds the South Island Māori electorate of Te Tai Tonga as an independent.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.