Cracks form in Te Pāti Māori, just as the Opposition gains the upper hand

Friday, 19 September 2025

Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris says he has nothing to apologise for despite his own party issuing an apology on his behalf. Caught at Wellington Airport, Ferris dismissed his co-leaders’ response as the party faces deepening internal strains.

ANALYSIS: At a time when you’d expect Te Pāti Māori to be soaring, it has fallen into internal crisis.

The party held itself together following the tragic death of Tāmaki Makaurau MP Takutai Kemp earlier this year. It then delivered a blistering performance to keep the seat of Tāmaki Makaurau, with Oriini Kaipara beating Labour’s Peeni Henare by about two votes to one.

For triumphing during adversity, Te Pāti Māori should be proud. They deserved to hold their heads high, and take time to recalibrate. Instead, they chose to do the exact opposite.

As the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election campaign drew to a close, the wheels started to fall off.

First there was the ill-advised Instagram post from Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris, that accused Labour of using “Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā” supporters to “take a Māori seat from Māori”.

He deleted the post, but later told Stuff that he didn’t regret making it. He took it down only out of political convenience, so as not to hamper Kaipara’s campaign.

The second crack appeared on Sunday morning. Having scored a resounding victory on Saturday night, with Kaipara securing a strong majority of votes in Tāmaki Makaurau, you’d assume Te Pāti Māori would be in celebration mode.

Instead, the party was tense. Staffer Kiri Tamihere-Waititi physically intervened to stop Kaipara from speaking to a 1 News reporter at TVNZ’s own office. Her intervention led to a bizarre televised scene where Kaipara appeared perfectly happy, while other Te Pāti Māori MPs and staff pushed her away from the camera.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi answered questions only in te reo Māori to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

The third crack, the following Tuesday, saw Te Pāti Māori demote Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. She had been the party’s whip, which is an official and important role at Parliament that comes with perks and the responsibility to keep the party in order. Kapa-Kingi had enjoyed the role and wasn’t happy with it being taken off her. Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is now, unusually, both co-leader and whip.

Then, more cracks: Ferris doubled down on his deleted post, with a new Instagram post, and then tripled down during an interview with Stuff.

After each of his three public comments attacks against Labour for its multicultural campaign in a Māori electorate, the Pāti Māori co-leaders have publicly rebuked their MP.

Te Pāti Māori newcomer Oriini Kaipara is off to Parliament, while Labour’s Peeni Henare faces his second voter rejection in two years. The Hui’s political panel examines what this means for the left-wing parties a year out from the election.

That exposes one of the largest cracks there is.

Ferris continued to make those comments, which his party leaders said were “not reflective of our values”.

That shows the co-leaders and their MP at loggerheads. It shows clear defiance of the leadership structure.

As Ferris explained his thinking, he said he didn’t see the purpose of a top-down leadership approach. He said that a tikanga Māori approach would see MPs given more autonomy.

“There are six seats in Te Pāti Māori. They all represent individual rohe. All of those rohe have the same mana,” he said.

Giving electorate MPs greater autonomy, and more power to speak out against their parties, could be quite good for the democratic process. It could allow local communities to have more control over the laws and decisions made at Parliament.

But it could also make it extremely difficult for a coalition Government to remain stable.

By giving electorate MPs a free pass to disobey their leaders and parties, it would be near impossible to guarantee that a coalition with a slim majority would - on any given day - have the numbers to pass law and maintain power.

Te Pāti Māori said it was going to “an internal tikanga-based restorative process” to clear things up with Ferris.

But then, crack six appeared, when Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere went on radio to publicly support Ferris’ views which the party co-leaders had disavowed.

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere said he agreed with the substance of what Tākuta Ferris said.

“What Tākuta said, in substance, was right. It is wrong for other folk to politic in Māori seats, because I don’t go over to their countries, like the British Raj and destroy India,” Tamihere told Radio Waatea this week.

Confusing stuff. What exactly is the position of Te Pāti Māori on this issue? Its co-leaders, its MPs, its president, are all saying different things.

On Tuesday, reporters at Parliament finally had a chance to ask one of the co-leaders - kanohi ki te kanohi - for some clarity about what’s been going on.

But Ngarewa-Packer, the co-leader who - according to the leaders of Labour and the Greens - has been managing this issue, avoided her usual “bridge run” to answer questions from reporters.

Instead, only Rawiri Waititi appeared to take questions. He is the son-in-law of John Tamihere, and husband of Kiri Tamihere-Waititi.

On Tuesday, when he arrived at bridge run, he said he would only take questions in te reo Māori and would not provide English translations for his responses. It was, after all, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

Asked about Ferris, he said: “Kāore mātou i te tautoko i ngā whakatakoto kōrero a Doc engari ko tā mātou e mea ana kua tīmatahia ngā wānanga ki te taha o ngā iwi taketake o te wā.

Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris said he didn’t need to apologise after two posts criticising Labour for its non-Māori supporters helping Peeni Henare.

“Nō reira, he pai tērā nō te mea kua puta tētahi wānanga nui me tētahi wānanga ātaahua i waenganui i a mātou me ngā iwi taketake o te whenua nei.”

Essentially, he said he and Ngarewa-Packer did not agree with Ferris. They were talking with ethnic communities, he said, about how to move forward.

But what was the party going to do about Ferris?

Did it accept his view that he had the mana to, without notice, go against the views of his party and co-leaders? That’s a complex discussion which, this reporter, didn’t have questions prepared in te reo to ask Waititi - without notice - on Tuesday.

And then Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer, and the rest of Te Pāti Māori, never appeared on bridge run again for the rest of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.

That seems a real shame if, as Waititi said, it was his plan to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori - and if Te Pāti Māori wants to remain an accountable political party. Accountability is key for governing.

This is terrible timing for Labour and the Greens. This week’s polls and negative GDP results showed the Opposition had an upper hand over the coalition parties, but they would need to show they could form a credible alternative.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has already said it would be “very hard” to work with Te Pāti Māori if it stood by Ferris’ position.

Tamihere’s support for Ferris makes it seem like that is its position.

Which raises the question, does Te Pāti Māori actually want to govern? Stuff wanted to ask Te Pāti Māori that question but, unlike other party leaders, Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer didn’t take questions after Tuesday.

That means the saga of Ferris and his comments about other ethnic communities risks dragging on for yet another week. It raises further questions about whether Te Pāti Māori could be a reliable coalition partner. And it gives even more time for cracks to appear.