National iwi leaders request meeting with Te Pāti Māori to address distracting ‘internal challenges’

The National Iwi Chairs Forum is requesting a meeting with Te Pāti Māori to help resolve rifts within the party that the group describes as distracting “internal challenges”.

Te Pāti Māori has been absorbed in turmoil for weeks, the latest development being former vice president Eru Kapa-Kingi seeking legal action following the party voting to suspend his mother and Te Pāti Māori’s Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi for allegedly violating the party’s constitution.

Divisions within the party have become clear with MPs Tākuta Ferris and Oriini Kaipara making statements in support of Kapa-Kingi, while her son continues to criticise party president John Tamihere and its co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who he had condemned as promoting a dictatorial leadership style.

At a meeting of the forum in Waikato today, about 75 iwi representatives discussed the matter alongside a wider debate about its strategy to increase Māori participation in next year’s election.

Bayden Barber released a statement on behalf of the forum today. Photo / Paul Taylor

Forum spokesman Bayden Barber, also the Ngāti Kahungunu chairman, said in a statement meeting with Te Pāti Māori to “help resolve internal challenges on a tikanga basis” was seen as a priority.

“The National Iwi Chairs Forum considers it necessary to focus political attention on the aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi as opposed to other political issues that in our view distract from that purpose.”

The forum had sent requests to Tamihere, Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer as well as representatives of the Tai Tokerau and Te Tai Tonga electorates.

Barber said Te Ātiawa, one of the tangata whenua of the Parliament grounds, had offered to host the meeting.

He expected any meeting would take place after Te Pāti Māori had engaged with Kapa-Kingi’s electorate team.

Tamihere, asked if he would meet with the forum, told the Herald: “We meet with all Māori that desire to hui.”

He wouldn’t confirm whether the request had been accepted or if a location and date had been agreed upon.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.