Once a rising political star, Te Pāti Māori collapses in on itself
On September 6, Te Pāti Māori was on top of the world. In just two months, it all came crashing down.
Back then, the party had just turned a 42-vote lead in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate at the 2023 election into a stonking 33 percentage point margin in Oriini Kaipara’s win in the by-election. The result was a stunning entrenchment of the party’s position in a seat which has been the country’s first or second-most competitive Māori seat in four of the past five elections.
Te Pāti Māori was polling well too – down slightly from the highs of 7 percent earlier in the year, but comfortably above its 2023 party vote result and threatening to surpass the 5 percent threshold.
Yes, the campaign had been marred by Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris’ social media post saying “Indians, Asians, Black and Pakeha” were assisting Labour in taking a Māori seat away from Māori. But co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi had shut Ferris down, assuring Labour leader Chris Hipkins that his views were not shared by the party.
Behind the scenes, though, all was not well.
At a time when te Pati Māori should be soaring, with the investigations of corruption all floundering and their amazing by-election win, some decided to plot against the leadership.
Glenn doesn’t understand…
Does anyone really know what the two MPs did to get booted from Te Pāti Māori?
When Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi tried to put an end to the sorry saga of infighting that has embroiled their party, they were unable to answer the most simple question.
On Monday, after a hush-hush hui of the Pāti Māori council on Sunday night, the co-leaders announced the party would suspend a third of its caucus. They said that Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris were being kicked out of the party.
Both MPs, at this stage, would stay in Parliament as independent MPs – to avoid further complications and two costly by-elections for Te Pāti Māori.
Expulsion is a serious and rarely used punishment.
…and Glenn is not alone.
No one really understood what the bloody hell this has all been about and the focus has been on the process and blaming John Tamihere, Debbie and Rawiri.
But the timeline that has been established listed now shows that this was all about an attempted Leadership spill in July to replace Debbie and Rawiri with Mariameno and Doc.
Once JT was alerted to this attempt he confronted Mariameno directly telling her that she had to have an actual reason to topple the leadership and that she couldn’t;t do it for shits and giggles.
Shortly after that in August, Mariameno’s overspending was discovered, Doc started opining about Māori only and Mariameno’s son Eru started his public campaign against the leadership.
Ostensibly the move against Debbie and Rawiri was because they weren’t ‘tikanga enough’, which is the same pure temple politics nonsense that plagued the Greens last year with a clique who wanted to challenge the Green leadership because they weren’t ‘woke enough’.
The expulsion has been criticised as lacking tikanga, but attempting to destabilise the party for your own aspirations doesn’t seem particularly tikanga either.
Glenn finally acknowledges this leadership challenge at the end of his column…
Waititi vouched for Tamihere and said the two MPs had launched an attempted coup against him and Ngarewa-Packer. Neither Ferris nor Kapa-Kingi denied that they tried to topple the co-leaders.
In the end, was the threat against their leadership the real reason why two MPs were kicked out of their own party? In a small party, with just six MPs, two conspiring MPs don’t need much more support to replace their leaders.
…the bewildering self sabotage and self mutilation of te Pati Maori is a gasp inducing, heads held in hands, cavalcade of own goals that is as shocking as it is impossible to stop watching.
It’s not just a train wreck, it’s a train carrying toxic chemicals colliding with a full school bus that explodes into a pet shop for disabled kittens.
The Māpro Party generating an overhang was one of the best hopes the Left had of making this a 1 term Government, watching them destroy themselves is depressing beyond belief.
Sean Plunkett, Don Brash, Mike Hosking, the Taxpayers’ Union, the Atlas Network, Federated Farmers, the Banks, the Supermarket Duopoly and David Seymour are laughing all the way to the ballot box.
Debbie and Rawiri deserved loyalty, they didn’t deserve plotting.
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Te Pāti Māori’s gone from “Māori rising” to “Māori imploding” faster than you can say “hush-hush hui.”
No one really knows who said what, who spent what, or who stabbed who first, but apparently, it’s all very tikanga.
Look, when your internal politics start looking like a Whānau Ora group chat after two bottles of Lindauer, it’s time for a wero of self-awareness. Debbie and Rawiri were too busy leading to notice half the waka was busy drilling holes in the hull.
Te Pāti Māori didn’t need enemies, they just needed a mirror. Because when the waka leaks, it’s not always the tide’s fault.
How many more weeks will the Kapa Kingi/Ferris mouthings off be centre stage in media channels? They sure get more attention than a convicted sex offender Act President (Jago) ever did!
I guess the positive is that those taking most delight in TPM’s meltdown are CoC supporters.
Ferris in particular is never going to shut up, so where this will end up who knows-not making CoC a one term Govt. is the most likely outcome. Thanks dickheads.
This is how I read Glenn’s article and when I came upon his obtuse question I again realised why I consider him to be a second rate journo – can’t or won’t see the big picture! All he has now done is cast doubt on F&KK’s real reasons and now KK is pretending she doesn’t know either why they were ousted! Shame F&KK can only now see the big hole they have dug for themselves. They are up sh&t creek without a paddle, in a canoe full of holes, of their own making. You never usurp your leadership if you don’t have very clear reasons and wish to retain your respect and support. The last thing the Left needed was this dumb-assed behaviour from 2 MP’s who should know better. But again it was a diversion to take the focus of the root of all evil – money/power and where that ‘overspend’ went! How about KK being up front and honest just for a change. And F you are looking like a spiteful, self-absorbed renegade so back off if you wish to stay in politics. That ‘overspend’ could have fed a lot of your followers – just think about how they feel. Any Maori still supporting F and/or KK in this = dumb and dumber!
So let me get this straight — two MPs get booted for not being “tikanga enough,” but no one can actually explain what that means? Sounds like the political version of getting fired for “bad vibes.”
Honestly, Te Pāti Māori is starting to look less like a movement and more like a reality show. Tune in next week to see who gets voted off the marae!
sIMPLE REALY .They were expelled because they would not bow down to the Tamihere family .
The MSM are in confusion because they want the simpletons that still rely on them for ‘reliable’ news to believe that TMP are not suitable to be in government. It’s difficult to understand how TMP became such a train wreck but I can’t understand why people believe in lots of things although the consequences of this disagreement could enable the current government to hang on to power which should be a good enough reason for any sensible TMP members to solve the problems.
We the tax payers are paring the wages of these show ponies. While they are spending time on fighting each other what are they doing for the hard working Maori that voted for them in the hope that they would be in their corner . What happened to the MP that worked so well with Key’s government
Well, taxpayers stump up Seymour’s wages too, and he is a corporate sell out with contempt for working class people.
With TPM we are witnessing a generational power shift, and different ideologies butting up against each other. JT and others have done the hard yards for decades, the newbies are politically immature in the Parliamentary arena and does it show. On the streets and in the Māori world they have more grasp, though with the Iwi Leadership Forum getting involved that is up for question too, if Ferris etc. will not see the main prize is to send this rotten Govt. packing.
In a democracy criticism is baked into the system. This inability to take criticism, and indeed compromise, speaks volumes.
While Eru did publicly criticized the leadership – the response from them has been nothing but horseshit. At every turn they have made it worse. They have not sat down and thrashed it out, there has been no discussion, no compromise, nothing but the ego’s of a leadership who think they are better than the people and MP’s who they are their to serve.
This at the end of the day this is a failure of leadership, and we all get to see it play out, because ego’s can’t or won’t act like the adults in the room.
Trev I am a taxpayer as are all people in NZAO by the way, through the iniquitous 15% GST being raked off all the overpriced items that we need everyday and also the big ones that regularly crop up.
And what you have to say Trev I think, being totally prejudiced against you after reading your ”common-sense’ drivel for some years, that without reading it, I’m agin’ it. And I’m a pakeha and can’t even get a reasonable suntan, sadly.