Labour leader Chris Hipkins says all political leaders, including the co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori, need to front up and answer questions, even if they don’t like them.
It comes after Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer abruptly left a media stand-up yesterday following a question about allegations of dictatorial leadership.
Eru Kapa-Kingi, son of Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, has claimed the party’s leadership had “effectively a dictatorship model” and condemned an alleged “ego-driven narrative” within the party that it had ownership over the Māori electorates.
Te Pāti Māori has rejected the allegations in a series of written statements, but media have wanted to question co-leaders Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer about the party’s recent troubles.
At a press conference yesterday, which followed the party discussing a planned “reset”, Waititi warned questions wouldn’t be taken that weren’t related to the reset.
When a journalist sought a response to Kapa-Kingi’s claims, Waititi quickly shut the press conference down, moved to leave, and pulled a seemingly reluctant Ngarewa-Packer with him.
Asked on Friday about the co-leaders refusing to address the allegations, Hipkins said politicians have a duty to answer questions.
“My advice to all political party leaders, not just Te Pāti Māori, is our job is to answer questions. Our job is to be accountable. And we might not always like those questions, but we still need to front up and answer them.
“That was exactly the advice I gave to Christopher Luxon when he first became Prime Minister, and it’s the advice I’d give to the Māori Party now, you do need to front up and answer questions.”
Hipkins wouldn’t comment on whether he thought the dictatorship allegations were serious.
“Those are really, ultimately questions for the Māori Party. I’m not going to get into their internal battles, but they should be willing to answer questions about it.”
During her speech as part of the “reset”, Ngarewa-Packer acknowledged the party’s leaders had heard the need for clearer direction in how it could work to unseat the coalition Government.
“We’ve had growth spurts and growing pains, and we’ve been broken. We’ve been tested in ways we’ve never been tested before as a movement,” she said.
“We’re tightening the lashings. Clarifying roles, front-footing communication, and you’ll see it and you’ll feel it.”
Ngarewa-Packer said the party had identified “who our coalition partners will be”, having mentioned collaboration with Labour and the Greens.
Hipkins said it was too early to make commitments about coalition partners. Labour has promised to outline its preferred partners closer to the next election.
He said that how “parties behave and the actions that they take between now and the election will very much determine what the outcome of that is”.
“I welcome [Te Pāti Māori’s] commitment to making sure we defeat this Government at the next election,” the Labour leader said.
“There’s no question that the Government is taking New Zealand backwards. We need to get New Zealanders back to work. We need to focus on getting basics like health and housing right. And the current Government are not doing that.
“But it’s clear that the Māori Party also have some work to do internally if they want to be part of an alternative government.”
The reset came after Te Pati Māori welcomed Oriini Kaipara to Parliament as its newest MP. After she delivered her maiden speech, there was a planned waiata.
However, when a haka broke out in the public gallery, Speaker Gerry Brownlee asked for it to stop. Kaipara and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke joined in at times on the floor of the House.
Brownlee briefly suspended the House and later said he would investigate whether the behaviour in the gallery “was by agreement with any party in this House”. Kaipara later wouldn’t tell the Herald if she had known about the haka.
After the haka last year during the vote on the Treaty Principles Bill, Brownlee referred several Te Pāti Māori MPs to the Privileges Committee.
Hipkins on Friday said it would be an “overreaction” to send anyone to the Privileges Committee again if any coordination was found between them and those who started the haka.
“There is a place for haka in Parliament. I think it’s important that the Speaker makes allowance for that. I wasn’t in the house. I think, you know clearly, members need to respect that there are time limits on a maiden speech and so on.
“It’s a bit different to a valedictory speech, where there’s generally a bit more flexibility there. If there is a desire for extensive waiata and haka, members who are speaking need to take that into account in terms of how long they speak for.”