Te Pāti Māori is detailing its party’s reset after weeks of turmoil involving a demoted MP and allegations of a dictatorial leadership style.
The party’s leaders are speaking about the much-anticipated reset shortly from Parliament’s Grand Hall. A livestream will be played at the top of the article.
“We dared to launch a revolutionary waka into the political seas of Aotearoa,” co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.
“A few of us took the plunge, We decided to refloat the waka to bring back the belief.
“Then COVID hit. We campaigned from isolation from lounge rooms and Zoom screens.”
He said most had left the waka, and a tiny crew remained.
“This place holds the ghost of some of the most violent, vilest humans to ever walk our whenua.
“We vowed, Debbie and I, that we would never get comfortable in here.”
He said by 2023, with four MP’s in the house, “the media wrote us off”.
“But you can’t measure belief. Our movement doesn’t fit the mainstream algorithm; we run on something older and truer, the algorithm of belief.
“Four new MPs, four new whānau, new waves, and straight into the facing the most racist coalition of our time.
“They are ram raiding our whenua for profit.”
He said they do not need to rebuild the waka, but they need correct their course.
“Small adjustments, big landfall,” he said.
The reset they are doing commits them to making the current government a one-term government, he said.
“To be political requires activism. Our rage is sacred,” he said.
“We are in the strongest position we have ever been in any politically and economically.”
He said the 2026 election will show the might of their movement.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said they aim to do three things; “steady the waka, set the course, and sail together”.
“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.
“We reject the ram raid legislation on our environment and build a Māori-led transition to a clean, sustainable sovereign economy.”
She said they aim to end policies that “warehouse Māori in prisons”.
“No one waka above another. All bound by kaupapa. That is our coalition message.
“Remember everything is called radical until it becomes transformational. Our movement is proof.”
The party’s reset follows the maiden address of new MP Oriini Kaipara, which prompted Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee to investigate whether an unauthorised haka at the end of the speech, deemed to be in contempt of the House, was organised in concert with any political party.
The party had promised it would detail a path ahead after it had been hit by controversy and allegations of a dictatorial leadership style by the son of one of its MPs.
Eru Kapa-Kingi, son of MP Mariameno and spokesperson for the Toitu Te Tiriti protest group, last week claimed the party had not lived up to its constitution and alleged power within the party was centralised to its leadership.
It followed MP Tākuta Ferris copping flak for criticising Labour for allowing non-Māori to help campaign during the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi being demoted from the party’s whip position.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has said he didn’t believe Te Pāti Māori was ready to govern. Multiple public polls suggest Labour would need Te Pāti Māori to form a government.
The reset has followed Kaipara’s first speech in the House as the new Tāmaki Makaurau MP.
Brownlee briefly suspended the House after Kaipara’s address, during which she paid thanks to those who had experienced the “ache of disconnection” through generations of te reo Māori being discouraged and welcomed its current revitalisation.
After a planned waiata at the conclusion of Kaipara’s speech, the majority of those in the public gallery erupted into a haka that was not sanctioned by the House.
Brownlee rose to his feet, calling for the haka to stop. Members in the public gallery ignored him. Some MPs joined in on the haka, including Kaipara and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.
MPs and parties must seek permission if their supporters wish to do a haka or sing a waiata from the public gallery.
Having suspended the House for a short time, Brownlee returned and declared the actions “contemptuous” and promised to investigate whether any parties had been involved in planning the haka.
“People go on to marae all over the country and respect the protocols. We have a protocol here, it is our tikanga,” Brownlee said.
“That tikanga is based, as I said before, on agreement and for people to decide they’re not going to participate in that process, then they put themselves very firmly in contempt of Parliament.”
Kaipara, the new Tāmaki Makaurau MP, used her speech to confess she and her party still mourn the late MP Takutai Moana Tarsh Kemp.
As she began, Kaipara spoke of Kemp, who perished earlier this year after a battle with kidney disease.
“You dedicated yourself to your region so that our families of Tāmaki Makaurau would have strong shoulders to lean upon,” she said.
“We mourn you still.”
Much of her speech focused on the promotion of te reo Māori over the last five decades, just recently celebrating 50 years of Māori language week.
Kaipara said her career had come through “Māori resilience”, acknowledging those who had suffered through regimes where use of the Māori language was discouraged, describing it as the “ache of disconnection”.
“We’ve been fighting for a very long time for te reo Māori to survive and thrive.
“Thank you for the sacrifices you made, the riduicule you faced and the courage you showed ... for a better life for us.”
Prior to her speech, several MPs moved over to speak to Kaipara, including deputy Prime Minister David Seymour. Labour MP Peeni Henare, whom Kaipara defeated at the byelection, left the House earlier, speaking to her on the way out.
The House was fairly full, with MPs from both sides present. Among those in attendance is the Finance Minister Nicola Willis, Health Minister Simeon Brown, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Seniors Minister Casey Costello, Labour police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen, Labour Justice spokesman Duncan Webb and others.
The public gallery was a little over half full with supporters and other observers. Kaipara’s party has organised event at Parliament to celebrate her arrival and its much-anticipated ‘reset’.
Kaipara’s speech went well over her allotted time. The bell used in Parliament to signal to speakers that their time is coming to an end has rung several times.
“I will wrap it up everybody”, Kaipara said as she gave her final comments amid gentle laughter.
Kaipara convincingly beat Labour’s Peeni Henare in the byelection, a former Tāmaki Makaurau MP of three terms.
Kaipara won by a margin of about 3000 votes, her platform largely based on revitalising te reo Māori.
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.