Te Pāti Māori co-leaders are refusing to address allegations of a dictatorial leadership style as they promise supporters the party will change and confirm they want a coalition with Labour and the Green Party.
Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer abruptly left a media stand-up held after the party’s much-anticipated “reset” this afternoon when asked about claims made by Eru Kapa-Kingi, son of Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno, of a party leadership style akin to a dictatorship and not honouring its constitution.
Te Pāti Māori has rejected the allegations in a series of written statements.
It was a chaotic end to a day that featured Oriini Kaipara’s maiden speech, Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee suspending Parliament due to an unauthorised haka at its conclusion and Te Pāti Māori acknowledging it needs to improve if it hopes to upset the current Government.
Kapa-Kingi, also a former party staffer, last week announced the Toitū Te Tiriti protest movement - responsible for last year’s immense hīkoi to Parliament - would distance itself from Te Pāti Māori.
He 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.
The allegations followed the demotion of Kapa-Kingi’s mother from the party’s whip position. It also came after the fallout surrounding MP Tākuta Ferris, who was criticised for arguing non-Māori campaigning for Labour in the recent Tāmaki Makaurau byelection was inappropriate.
Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer fronted an impromptu media stand-up after addressing supporters following Kaipara’s maiden speech. Waititi began by warning journalists they would leave if any questions were unrelated to the party’s reset.
As one journalist sought a response to Kapa-Kingi’s claims, Waititi immediately moved to leave and pulled a seemingly reluctant Ngarewa-Packer with him.
The party’s reset, promised after Kapa-Kingi’s comments, was branded as a new chapter for Te Pāti Māori and an attempt to reassure supporters ahead of the 2026 election.
Before the stand-up ended, Ngarewa-Packer accepted cracks within the party could be seen publicly and noted how the death of MP Takutai Moana Tarsh Kemp had impacted her colleagues.
“We’re a really young movement and it’s been tough.
“I think Takutai was, and you could probably see that, the peacekeeper of us all and we’ve all got very strong personalities.
“The electorates are telling us one thing and that’s ‘Get your act together because we do not want this Government to stay’.”
Referencing her earlier speech to supporters, Ngarewa-Packer said the party had identified “who our coalition partners will be”, having mentioned collaboration with Labour and the Greens.
Before he left, Waititi added the party had “been so much in the weeds” opposing Government policy and had not been able to “lift ourselves out ... of the trenches”.
Earlier, speaking to a crowd of party members at Parliament’s Grand Hall, 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.”
The potential of working with Labour and the Green Party was mentioned multiple times by Ngarewa-Packer.
“We’ve got to commit to a common cause, shared with the Greens and shared with Labour, to make this the last term of this Government.”
Last week, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he didn’t believe Te Pāti Māori appeared ready to govern in light of the public claims and inner rifts.
Waititi also spoke honestly about how the party had “collapsed” by 2020, saying many supporters had left Te Pāti Māori, forced to balance the competing motivations to oppose colonial structures like Parliament and the desire to effect legislative change to better Māoridom.
“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 facing the most racist coalition of our time.
Its newest MP Oriini Kaipara, who won the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate in a byelection prompted by Kemp’s death, was inducted today in the House and gave her maiden address.
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.