Te Pāti Māori Update – The Kapa-Kingi and Ferris bullying allegations

Te Pāti Māori Update – The Kapa-Kingi and Ferris bullying allegations

Dr Rawiri Taonui

First published Waatea News 16 Jan 2026 (Updated 29 Jan).

• Did Te Pāti Māori rig the party list before the last general election?

This article updates and expands my investigation into the bullying allegations made by Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, her son Eru Kapa-Kingi, and ally Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris against Te Pāti Māori (TPM) President John Tamihere and parliamentary co-Leaders Debbie Ngārewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi.

The first critique focussed primarily on accusations from the Kapa-Kingi whānau. This piece examines several claims Ferris has made since his expulsion. After reviewing documents and correspondence, following public coverage, and speaking with both sides (and third parties where versions differed), the story is bigger than “bullying”.

The claims are connected in style and intent. They are sweeping in scope, generalised, rhetorical, personalised, and typically lacking specific detail. This enquiry asks whether the core drivers are about a toxic leadership culture, or two inexperienced MPs preoccupied with personal advancement targeting a leadership team they perceive is an obstacle to their goals.

Significant questions arise about the conduct of the Kapa-Kingi network regarding declaration of interests, invoicing, annual MP budgets and transparency, and claims Ferris has made concerning the late MP for Tāmaki Makaurau Takutai Tarsh Kemp. The analysis explores how these matters evolved to fracture the party against itself and fed mainstream prejudice and far-right narratives.

Whānau

Mariameno is warm and well-spoken, an epitome of the favourite aunty. Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu ki Whaingaroa are her iwi. She has a long background in Māori health and social services.

She has three intelligent and talented triplet sons, Eru, Heemi and Tipene. Eru is a professional teaching fellow at the University of Auckland Law School. Heemi is a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland. Tipene is an iwi CEO.

Whānau Network

Nepotism is one of the primary allegations levelled against the leadership because Tamihere is the father-in-law of Waititi whose wife Kiri is Tamihere’s daughter and the General Manager of TPM. Bryce Edwards from the Democracy Project questioned whether the Kapa-Kingi’s were themselves also “entangled in nepotism”. The connections are larger than he appreciates.

The Kapa-Kingi whānau is kaupapa Māori strong. They are also entrepreneurially ambitious and maintain an intricate web of whānau relationships across kaupapa and income streams.

Mariameno operates a personal consultancy Puna Ki Te Puna doing tikanga, te reo, kaupapa Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi workshops. The brothers own a similar company Tautoru.

There have been other entities and initiatives. As of the end of December 2025 Eru is a director and sole shareholder of a company call Kōkiri Kaupapa. Heemi is also a director and shareholder Pukus Projects and Te Kāhui Whaturoa, a digital promotions company, such as for the Hīkoi. The brothers also have clothing companies. Never Ceded is a subsidiary of Tautoru. Ara Moana is another whānau-linked label.

Mariameno was the CEO of Te Rūnanga Nui o Te Aupōuri (2020 to June/July 2024). During that time, Tipene held directorships in Te Aupōuri Fisheries and Te Aupōuri Commercial Development (both 2022-2023). Eru appears in annual reports as a paid director from July 2023 to June 2025. Part of this appears to be for Te Kāhui Kaitiaki Rangatiratanga o Te Aupōuri a social-cultural development subsidiary of the rūnanga (Eru was a director from December 2021 to December 2024). Somewhere there is another role. On 18 July 2024, Te Aupōuri announced Tipene was the new CEO. The 2025 annual report shows that Te Aupōuri paid the sons’ Tautoru consultancy $72,580 and Eru $2,850; not much less than the $81,684 paid to fourteen other directors and trustees.

She was a director on Te Rūnanga ā Iwi ō Ngāpuhi subsidiary Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services (NISS) (2019-2024), the largest iwi social services provider in Aotearoa. Tipene replaced her a month when she resigned in January 2024. Last year Heemi and Eru did wellbeing podcasts for NISS.

Mariameno is a continuing Te Tahaawai marae trustee representative on Te Rūnanga o Whaingaroa for which she does occasional contract work. At the end of 2023, Tipene became a director of the rūnanga’s subsidiary Whaingaroa Fisheries.

She was a director for Te Kōhao Health (2003-2024). Her son Heemi joined her as a director in May 2022 and in August 2024 became deputy chair.

Holding a network of service and entrepreneurial whānau relationships is not implicitly deceitful or dishonest. Many whānau, aiga and families in Māori and non-Māori communities hold similar networks.

Sitting on boards overseeing social services does however facilitate monitoring of contract opportunities. This raises concern if a whānau dominates multiple income streams within an iwi or across multiple iwi or similar entities. Transparency can become a risk, more so if there are crossovers into political contexts.

Party List

The first incident between the Kapa-Kingi camp and the leadership concerned the party list for the 2023 election. The list was normal enough. Co-Leaders Waititi and Ngārewa-Packer and sitting MP Meka Whaitiri the top three, followed by non-MPs ranked by chance of winning as measured by the Labour majority in each seat. Kapa-Kingi was seventh.

Facing the largest majority (9,900 by Nanaia Mahuta), Hana Maipi-Clarke was an exception at fourth. She gained that place because she best represented the massive youth support the party was building.

The Kapa-Kingi whānau queried why Maipi-Clarke “someone still in nappies” was listed higher, and why Mariameno could not be number one. Mariameno had a right to question the list. However, the nappies comment and inquiring about a place above the leaders was an early red flag that an ambitious, not yet elected candidate, eyed an easier path into parliament.

The leadership explained the list. The list remained unchanged. Maipi-Clarke’s colossal win in Hauraki-Waikato and her three international accolades justified her ranking.

Election 2023

Mariameno won Te Tai Tokerau with a 517-vote majority, however, the path to victory was far from straight forward.

She lost the advance and election day voting booths in the Far North heartland of her iwi Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu and Te Aupōuri and in her hometown of Whangārei (106 to 48). This was offset by her winning the Kaipara-West Auckland area and the eastern coast between Auckland’s North Shore and south of Whangārei (107 to 81), due in no small part to Tamihere and the Auckland party machinery sending vanloads of volunteers’ northwards to support her campaign.

The Auckland win allowed Mariameno to come through the middle of a Labour-Greens split; their combined votes over three thousand higher than Kapa-Kingi’s (14,098 to10,428).

A win is a win and the leadership offered Mariameno an olive branch in the form of becoming the Party Whip. Whips play a key role interfacing with Parliamentary Services (PSV), the Speaker of the House, and other parties.

Electorate Council

Another red flag followed the election when Tipene and another Mariameno supporter replaced the co-chairs of the party’s Te Tai Tokerau Electorate Council in what some describe as a “cleanout” and others a “coup”. While positions on electorates do change, those ejected felt this was an exercise in future proofing Mariameno against nominations in elections to come.

Multi-Jobbing

A first tension over financial matters occurred when Mariameno remained in her position as CEO of Te Aupōuri after the 2023 election.

New MPs usually resign from their work soon after an election to concentrate on their new responsibilities and avert the risk of public criticism such as double dipping.

After the last general election, New Zealand First MP Jamie Arbuckle chose to remain on the Marlborough District Council until last year’s local elections. Accused of double jobbing on the public purse ($163,000 as an MP, $40,000 as a councillor), he backed down and donated the councillor’s salary to charity.

Mariameno told me she left the CEO position four to six weeks after the election (end of November 2023). The leadership say she stayed well beyond an agreed three-month post-election handover period ending mid-January.

Their concern was that the longer she stayed, the greater the risk others would see that as “gain”. If the media had upbraided Arbuckle for topping up his salary to $200,000, the backlash over a Māori MP potentially doubling theirs to $400,000 would be much worse ($163,000 MP, $30,000 Whip, $200,000 average lowest iwi CEO salary).

Reportedly, Mariameno said she wanted to stay as CEO to “serve her people”. Matters reached a head and Tamihere advised her that TPM would raise the issue with Te Aupōuri.

Comparing the Parliament Register of Pecuniary and Other Interests (Register) with records from the Companies Office suggests Mariameno always intended to vacate the CEO position.

She achieved this by gradually leaving positions over the eight-to-nine-month period between the election (October 2023), when MPs complete the Register (31 January 2024) and the date PSV published the Register (late May 2024) vacating the lucrative CEO position last.

Mariameno’s Register entry declared the minor trusteeships. She also declared her well-known Te Kōhao directorship and income. This would have been conspicuous if absent.

The Aupōuri entry as “governance” is vague and does not show it was a salaried CEO position. She also did not declare the lesser-known Te Paeroa directorship (There are no director’s fee for this largely inactive company).

Mariameno resigned as a director from NISS on 27 January (four days before Register closed), left Te Kōhao Health on 5 April, Te Paeroa 10 June, and the CEO position last, sometime in June or July. The exact date is uncertain. The position was advertised 27 May about the time PSV published the Register, her farewell was 24 June, and Tipene’s appointment announced 18 July.

It is difficult not to conclude that the combination of exiting the NISS directorship days before the Register closed, not mentioning Te Paeroa, and understating the CEO position helped avoid scrutiny that might uncover retaining the CEO position well after the election.

When I spoke with the leadership, seven months after PSV published the 2024 Register, they were uncertain about exactly when Mariameno had left the CEO position and were completely unaware of the directorships. Why? Likely because it falls to the party whip, Mariameno, to advise the leadership of matters arising in the Register.

The overall impression is the selective inclusion of some entities and non-inclusion of others manipulating the Register to avoid scrutiny, maximise gain and prioritizing that over risk to TPM.

Parliament Haka

Ferris is a bright and still young man. He is intelligent and when an unanointed MP, more than held his own against established leaders, Marama Davidson, Winston Peters and David Seymour in a heated pre-election debate in Christchurch in 2023. He makes multiple social media videos on kaupapa Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi many of which have innovative insights.

Ferris sometimes inflates his abilities and importance. He often cites his background as including 15 years senior leadership in education. More accurately, he was a senior adviser at Massey University, which is quite different from leading a department, faculty, or college. Colleagues say he believes he should lead more of the important debates in parliament than, in his view, the less able Ngārewa-Packer and Waititi.

In November 2024, this manifested in the last debate for the last reading of The Treaty Principles Bill. Ferris wanted to be the main TPM speaker. Caucus agreed on Waititi. Ferris took “a huff” and did not attend.

The outcomes. Hana led the haka with Waititi and Ngārewa-Packer. The Greens and Labour joined in. Parliament suspended Hana, Waititi and Ngārewa-Packer. The haka got a billion hits on TikTok.

Takutai Kemp

Ferris accuses Tamihere of trying to bully Tāmaki Makaurau MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp out of parliament in April last year. This is false.

I spoke with Kemp several times when writing columns for Waatea News investigating the electoral allegations against the party in 2024. We discussed her relationship with Tamihere. She said they had been “close friends for over a decade, and while Tamihere could be forceful, never an ill word had passed between them”. Several people, including some not particularly fond of Tamihere, confirm this.

The facts are that after a period on leave dealing with kidney disease, Kemp returned to work on Waitangi Day last year. She continued experiencing bouts of fatigue, was on a transplant waiting list, and on home dialysis which carries risks for those in demanding occupations.

There were meetings to discuss the concerns about her health. More than one source says that Mariameno and other MPs said, “Get rid of her”. The task fell to Tamihere to talk with Kemp.

He met with Kemp and discussed what she would need if she either stayed on or if she left parliament to prioritise her health. The packages were comprehensive, well thought out and caring. Parliament was her life and she chose to stay. Nine weeks later she passed away. Framing this as bullying by Tamihere is about as low as one can go.

 Tangihanga

During an interview on Mata Reports (Radio New Zealand, 24 November 2025), Ferris criticised Tamihere and the National Executive for taking Takutai’s body to Hoani Waititi Marae. He implies this was without the family’s permission saying, “her parents learned that their girl was on her way to Waipareira on the radio while driving to Auckland”. He also claims that the leadership “left the whānau with a huge debt for a tangihanga they did not want”.

These claims misconstrue the facts. It was well known that the Auckland Māori community wanted to farewell Takutai on one of their marae so they could honour her legacy. Manurewa was not available because of fallout from the electoral allegations in 2024 (none were proven). It was also known that given the Manurewa situation, Tamihere wanted to have Takutai lie at Hoani Waititi Marae. This may very well have made its way on to radio.

Tamihere told me that the whānau gave permission for Takutai to go Hoani Waititi. Several witnesses confirm that after Takutai’s parents arrived in Auckland, Tamihere and TPM members met with them at the funeral directors. They also say Tamihere make a respectful tono (request) to have Takutai lie at Hoani Waititi Marae. The whānau agreed.

More than 2,000 attended, including scores of young people who gave deep heartful kōrero (speeches) about how she had helped them deal with life challenges. There was a reconciliation with Manurewa.

Members of the Auckland Māori community, cooked, cleaned and ran the tangi. Koha raised covered the substantive costs of the tangi, accommodation for the immediate whānau and a portion of the funeral costs. No costs from Auckland tangi passed to Takutai’s whānau.

On the weekend, Takutai’s whānau returned her to Ōpaea Marae in Taihape before her nehu (burial) on 1 July. Rawiri Waititi spoke on behalf of TPM during the final service. Ōpaea is a small marae and in the middle of winter required extra resourcing like marquees. The costs were significant. That is the source of the “debt” referred to; a sizeable proportion remains outstanding. There are differing views on who would meet that cost. One thing is certain; there was no open cheque book.

Ferris did not attend either the Auckland or Taihape tangi and may have discombobulated the tangi of a dearly loved politician as utu for his expulsion from the party.

Mariameno and Ferris said they would take a kawe mate (remembrance) to this year’s Rātana celebrations. This did not eventuate.

Elections and Rangatahi

During the above interview, Ferris said that “the job of the party is to engage with and capture the 500,000 Māori aged under 25 years old and get them enrolled and voting”. He said “Tamihere is not the right person to do that” and asserted that “Mariameno” and “the younger Māori leaders are”.

That view is incongruent with the available evidence. The rangatahi vote (18-24yrs) has been the largest voting cohort in the Māori electorates since 2014. Co-Leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples generated first momentum in 2005. The impetus slowed after the split with the Mana Movement. Between 2017 and 2021 it began regrowing under TPM President, Tuku Morgan, and later co-Presidents Che Wilson and Kaapua Smith.

The new impetus took a sharp upturn when Tamihere became President in 2022. Tamihere brought more than two decades of political experience, a seriously good strategic skillset, and an ability to organise and mobilise on the ground.

In the lead-up to the 2023 election, 11,000 more Māori switched from the general roll to the Māori roll than went the other way, and 11,500 more new Māori voters chose the Māori roll rather than the general roll. Numbers not seen since the first Māori option in 1997.

Consequently, in 2023, more rangatahi voted in the seven Māori seats than in all sixty-four general seats combined. Their turnout hit 70%, a staggering increase from 52% in 2014, and exceeded the combined average of all voters aged 25-to-59yrs in the Māori electorates.

The only electorates where the rangatahi vote declined between 2020 and 2023 were Te Tai Tokerau and Te Tai Tonga, the electorates of Mariameno and Ferris. Tamihere may not be Ferris’ cup of kawakawa, but the numbers speak for themselves.

When the Toitū te Tiriti movement hit the streets in 2024, they too made a valuable contribution. The Hīkoi saw 8,500 more Māori switch from the general roll to the Māori roll than went the other way, and 6,700 more new Māori voters choose the Māori roll rather than the general roll.

The combined effort of the old man Tamihere and the younger energy of Toitū brought TPM to the brink of a seven-seat clean sweep in 2026. Incredible mahi from people who apparently cannot work together.

Budget Overspend

Mariameno’s PSV budget from November 2024 to October 2025 was about $500,000. Alongside this, was an arrangement that Mariameno would support Kemp’s electorate while she was away battling illness. The co-leaders approved Kemp transferring $33,000 from her budget to Mariameno. Kemp also paid a $6,500 invoice to Eru. The agreement included an in principle understanding for further transfers if required.

Somewhere in the mix was a proposed $120,000 salary for Eru. Eru denies this. Sources confirm the proposal existed and that Kemp and others questioned its affordability.

Kemp returned to work on Waitangi Day 2025. In March, she declined further invoices from Mariameno ($45,000) and Eru ($6,000) questioning what work, if any, they were doing in her electorate. Twelve days later, Eru resigned as co-Vice President of the party saying he wanted to concentrate on his whānau. Months later, he claimed he left because of a bullying culture. More likely, he left because Kemp withholding funds short-circuited his financial expectations.

The combined claims on Kemp’s budget look mercenary. Totalling $90,500 covering five months, extrapolated over a full year, this amounts to $217,200 – some $50,000 more than the salary of a single MP. There seems little justification other than pecuniary gain.

Kemp passed away on 26 June. At the beginning of July, PSV advised Mariameno that her budget was heading for an over-spend of $137,000. Somewhere between 7 July and 10 July, Mariameno asked PSV to transfer the equivalent of the previously declined $45,000 from Kemp’s budget to her budget. PSV declined without requisite approval from the co-leaders. Despite the earlier in principle agreement, based on Kemp declining Mariameno’s last request, the co-leaders also declined. This second request lacked transparency. Mariameno had for all appearances, attempted to go around the co-leaders and raid the budget of a recently departed colleague.

On 16 July, PSV advised the co-leaders that Mariameno had disengaged and that the budget would run out in August, whereupon further payments would become “the responsibility of the member”. Because Mariameno had already gone around the co-leaders and had also disengaged with them, they sought advice from Tamihere.

On 3 August, he wrote to Mariameno seeking her urgent attention, lest she become responsible for any overspend. The Kapa-Kingi camp has criticised Tamihere’s response as bullying, but it only reiterated what PSV had already warned. Mariameno would later claim that she felt “unsafe” dealing with the leadership. That is questionable given she had also disengaged with PSV.

PSV resolved Mariameno’s budget before the deadline of 31 October. Ferris later claimed this meant that, all the allegations about an overspend were “false”. This overlooks the clear correspondence from PVS, Mariameno’s disengagement, her circumventing the co-leaders and the attempt to access a colleague’s budget without other party MPs knowing.

Ferris also minimises the very real impact of the solution on Mariameno’s office. Two staff lost their jobs, including Eru. PSV cancelled all staff travel and p-card spending. And an 18% drawdown from her 2026 budget (nearly double the 10% usually allowed) to cover the remaining shortfall. Taken together, this will significantly diminish the ability of Mariameno and her staff to serve their constituents this fiscal year by $90,000.

Centralising Finances

Somewhere in this murky milieu, Mariameno proposed that her finance coordinator, a relative, become the finance coordinator for the other five MPs. While initially entertained, caucus and the co-leaders declined because of the rising tensions. Had they not done so, this would have transferred significant authority to the Kapa-Kingi camp.

 Electorate Visibility

In July last year, iwi leaders from Te Tai Tokerau separately and independently contacted the leadership expressing unease that Mariameno was less engaged in the electorate as MPs Willow-Jean Prime (Labour) and Huhana Lyndon (Greens).

Moana Tuwhare, the general manager of Te Rūnanga ā Iwi ō Ngāpuhi, dismissed this claim as a “complete lie”. Other respected northern sources say the opposite. One stated, “If I attend 100 hui, I see Huhana 98 times and Mariameno twice and that was at tangi”.

Mariameno told me she admires Prime and Lyndon’s more frequent presence and says her personal style is helping individuals at ground level. Sources in Wellington say that when they discussed this with her, the response was “My job is in Wellington, looking after people up north is the job of the iwi”. This is the exact opposite of the reason she gave for staying on as CEO of Te Aupōuri.

Mariameno, possibly distracted by opportunities inside the Beehive, forgot that with a marginal 517-majority visibility or absence wins or loses elections.

Leadership Coup

The same northern leaders also said that during an online meeting Mariameno sought their backing for a bid to take over the party leadership.

It is now clear that unable to find caucus support, Mariameno approached leaders outside the party to support dethroning Ngārewa-Packer and Waititi. The leadership believes a plan evolved for her and Ferris to seize the co-leader positions and oust Tamihere as President.

Mariameno and Ferris have denied this. In another interview with Mata Reports (Radio New Zealand, 14 November 2025), Ferris said Mariameno [and he] were not trying to take over as co-leaders, instead, “About four or five months ago a leader in the North told JT [John Tamihere], he should step down … and said we should be leading the party. I was informed of that by Mariameno.”

Mariameno may well have said this, however it is unlikely true. The first person I contacted to verify the story said they were in the online hui, and yes, Mariameno asked them to support a takeover of the leadership. Several respected northern sources confirm same, one saying “It was the worse kept secret plan in the history of Te Tai Tokerau”.

Sources also say that at the end of October, they approached leaders at an Iwi Chairs Forum hui seeking support for their leadership bid but were politely declined.

Leadership challenges are a normal part of politics. But challenges that go outside caucus are regarded as political sacrilege because they undermine the leadership, unity, and the integrity of the party and parliament.

One of the northern leaders asked the leadership to reconsider Mariameno’s candidacy for the next election. Tamihere declined on the basis that the process had ended.

Tāmaki Makaurau By-Election

After Kemp passed away, former newsreader, Oriini Kaipara, became the TPM candidate for the September Tāmaki Makaurau by-election. On 3 September, three days before voting closed, Ferris uploaded an explosive Facebook and Instagram post objecting to Labour using “Indians, Asians, Black and Pākehā … to take a seat from Māori”.

The following day, co-leaders Waititi and Ngārewa-Packer apologised to Labour and the Greens Party and instructed Ferris to take it down, which he did.

Three days after the election, Ferris doubled down in what many call a “slurry” late-night post saying:

I don’t give a crap what people say. The Māori seats are for Māori voices only. They’re for the Māori people to decide. So, you got all these other ethnicities campaigning for Labour to take a Māori seat from the Māori people, and straight up e te iwi, that should be unacceptable to us.

One basis for his argument is that successive governments homogenise Māori as “just another minority group” rather than tangata whenua with distinct rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This is true. Any Māori engaging with government agencies and other institutions understands that.

However, the offence this post causes lies outside that context. The existence of the Māori electorates and our right to vote in either the general or Māori roll derives from our Article 2 rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Article 3 rights allow other citizens to vote in the general seats, support different policies, including kaupapa Māori, and put up hoardings, pull them down, and take photos alongside the hoardings of candidates they support, regardless of ethnicity.

No one objected to the hundreds of Pākehā, Pasifika, Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, African, and Latin American supporters who turned up to tautoko the Ihumātao occupation, the thousands who supported the Hīkoi or the tens of thousands who ensured that over 500,000 Aotearoan New Zealanders of all cultures and colours voted to retain Māori wards.

Neither should anyone object to any of them supporting Labour MP Peeni Henare. Fundamentally, they were not trying to rob a Māori seat from Māori, they were supporting a Māori, with an impressive record of standing for and helping Māori, to win a Māori seat.

Communities of colour in Aotearoa are our natural allies. They come from countries whose ancestors endured similar, if not worse, colonisation than our tūpuna, and in our country suffer racism comparable to that Māori experience. By 2050, together with them our communities will form over 50% of the population, and most of the workforce, voting franchise and politicians in Parliament.

Ferris draws an artificial ‘them versus us’ distinction. In 1840 at Waitangi, Tāmaki Waka Nene said of the Pākehā “many of his children are our children”. Figures from the 2023 Census show that 60% of Māori (521,500 of 887,500) also acknowledge heritage from Pākehā, Pasifika, Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, African, and other ethnic communities. And 62% of that subgroup (323,600) are under 30 years old. They are part of our future.

To accept these things, but object to a Pākehā, Asian, Indian and a Black person supporting a Māori contest a Māori electorate while also standing TPM candidates in the general seats to win their party vote is by stark contradiction abject racism made worst by double denial. Regrettably, some of our own have internalised European stereotypes about coloured immigrant communities.

Implosion

In September, events culminated in TPM standing Mariameno down as party whip during a caucus meeting ostensibly to concentrate on her electorate. Honestly, it was also a way of addressing the issues surrounding her and the effort it took to manage those. The Kapa-Kingi camp say Tamihere was visibly angry. The Tamihere side alleges Mariameno called him a “f**king c**t”.

On 2 October, Eru declared the Toitū te Tiriti movement was divorcing from TPM because the leadership was “dictatorial”. More likely, this was because TPM stood his mother down as whip. Tipene and others from Mariameno’s electorate team began sending a stream of belligerent emails to the leadership. Despite more than a hundred years of combined service to Māori communities, one email requested the leaders undergo tikanga training, contrarily another in te reo read, “You lie, watch out”. One demanded a hui, another informed they were boycotting hui.

Three months of acrimony has followed. Most stems from the Kapa-Kingi Ferris camp. There is little direct rancour from Mariameno, although this possibly belies a pattern of fostering disrepute by proxy. The leadership stood Mariameno down as party whip on 11 September. Twenty days later, Eru and Tipene launched into the party. Two weeks after that, Ferris’ electorate council launched a petition calling for the resignation of Tamihere. During a Te Rūnanga Nui ā Iwi o Ngāpuhi hui in November, Mariameno described TPM as having dynamics of “sexism”, “narcissism” and “misogyny”. Ferris gave this full voice the following week stating the leadership tried to bully Kemp out of the party.

Acrimony by proxy allows someone to keep a clean skin. This may also explain why the December High Court hearing that reinstated Mariameno did not include Ferris. Left on a limb, he was expendable

For its part, the leadership has sought to avoid open hostility. There was the 13 October document dump to the party membership and Tamihere’s November Facebook post ‘An Anatomy of Madness’ listing difficulties with the Kapa-Kingi kin. Intended or not, the document dump was always going to make its way into the public arena. Not great, but in many ways, the widespread vitriol had forced their hand.

Tailgate

Following the October allegations of a dictatorial bullying culture, the leadership promptly acted to ask its parliamentary staff to report any instances of bullying, if necessary, in confidence. They also requested PSV to advise of any reported inappropriate behaviour concerning the party.

The single matter raised was PSV forwarding an email from parliamentary security that Eru had tailgated through a security gate at the Beehive on Budget Day 30 May 2024. Security said that when asked to verify his credentials, Eru launched a tirade of abuse and obscenities in front of several witnesses including staff and visitors.

Echoing formal National MP Aaron Gilmore, it was alleged Eru said “Do you know who I am?”, “You are going to be so embarrassed and f**ked when you find out”.

Security said he refused to comply yelling “I don’t have to do anything you say … you are not a cop; you are just a security guard who can’t do s**t”.

They further claim that Eru threatened staff saying, “I will f**king knock you out” and used an antiwhite racial epithet “F**ken white bald c**t”.

Eru has refuted this, saying security “racially profiled” him. Our young Māori men are often racially profiled. In this instance the claim is unself-aware given he had just gate crashed one of the most secure sites in the country on one of the most important nights on the parliamentary calendar. There were also eyewitnesses who were surprised and scared at how volatile Eru was. A call was made to the upstairs TPM offices asking for help.

The TPM leadership believes PSV suspended and trespassed Eru who returned to work for Mariameno via a loophole working for his Tautoru consultancy. Eru describes this as “defamatory lies” seeking to undermine him for challenging the leadership’s bullying culture. That ignores the events of that evening. His version is that in September he resigned of his own accord. That makes sense, although the timing suggests he may have done so to avoid termination. Either way, he returned to work via Tautoru.

Something that goes to the heart of how the Kapa-Kingis operated within the party, is that while the leadership knew there had been an incident, they did not know the full details until PSV forwarded the security email. This is partly because PSV exercise a discretionary decorum between MPs and their staff. More concerningly, it is because Eru, at that time a co-Vice President of TPM, and Mariameno, the party whip, withheld the full details from the leadership for 17 months. On 5 December, Stuff News published an article alleging Eru was “drunk”. This is not true. Tamihere agrees there is no evidence that he was.

Reconciliation

There have been efforts at reconciliation. Hone Harawira penned an eloquent column reflecting on his leaving TPM 15 years ago to found the Mana Movement. The Iwi Chairs Forum called for a conciliatory meeting. This did not eventuate because a physical incident on 3 November, between one of the Kapa-Kingi men and a party staff member, precipitated the party to expel Mariameno and Ferris.

There have been multiple appeals to tikanga and invites to front different hui. Tikanga is important. Every Māori electorate has ten to twelve tribes raising questions arise about which tikanga is followed. Calls to tikanga can also mean someone is not getting their way. Tariana Turia rejected similar invites in 2011, saying that the tikanga of the party is what mattered because it was the party and its MPs that front the public and parliament.

What Went Wrong?

In 2011, Turia said that kotahitanga was paramount and that those who focus on what divides the party rather than what unites it undermine the leadership and the ability of the party to serve its people. Harawira was suspended for undermining the leadership and party in public, then resigned.

Kaupapa ethnic-cultural parties and similar entities are vulnerable to internal splits when dominant structures around them exhibit latent discrimination. The resulting constant vigilance creates an underlying tension that, if unaddressed, can express itself by inverting into internal conflict. In this environment, differences around core beliefs, strategic direction, philosophies, personal ambition, and intergenerational variances become gaping chasms.

In a culture that prides itself on kotahitanga and whanaungatanga this occurs more frequently than we would like to admit. At the public level, this manifests as power plays, open often bitter conflict, sensationalised public accusations, ridicule, loss of reputation, and voters shifting to other parties.

Te Pāti Māori split asunder on ideological grounds in 2011 and evaporated in 2017. The Matiu Rata founded Mana Motuhake suffered two splits in 1991 and 1996, and in 2001, saw its two MPs fight for the leadership before disappearing in 2005.

In this instance, the Mariameno camp found Tamihere, and by association Ngārewa-Packer and Waititi, an obstacle to their ambitions. Somehow, they played on Ferris’ ego cajoling him into also targeting Tamihere and the co-leaders. This fractured the caucus and splintered the party. With less than two years’ each in parliament, this high-handed reckless endeavour generated multiple paper-thin, counter-factual, and publicly personalised attacks on the leadership the substance of which is contrived.

Turia also said those who publicly malign the party fuel racism. We have seen all of that. Mainstream media has regurgitated everything they can find about Tamihere and the unproven allegations from 2024. On social media, the far-right lusts for each new revelation as confirmation of every prejudice they ever held about Māori.

The current leadership is not perfect, but it has performed a miracle in mobilising the Māori vote from no seats in 2017 to six in 2023. The party has 167,000 followers on Instagram, more than Labour and National combined. As of January, Tamihere’s skillset, the inspiration of Toitū and a substantial number of volunteers took the Māori roll over 303,000, the highest number ever, and the 46,400 gap over the general role the widest since 2006.

There is a time when the baton of leadership will pass to others. The caucus is brilliant, wonderfully inexperienced, and magnificently defiant. All the numbers show that when Kaipara won the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election, the party was set to clean sweep the Māori electorates in 2026. That achievement would have been the time to strategize the future. The party will survive but the clean sweep is gone.

One of the best kōrero I heard during this investigation was, “Three MPs stood to do the haka, three MPs attended every day of Tarsh Kemp’s tangi and three MPs supported Oriini every day of the by-election, Debbie Ngārewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana Maipi-Clarke”, the present and future parliamentary leaders.

That is a lot more positive than the other thing I heard, “When Mariameno arrives, the boys and the invoices soon follow”. In December, the High Court issued an interim injunction reinstating Mariameno for a full judicial hearing next week. We await the findings.

Ka oti

About the Author

Rawiri Taonui (Te Hikutū and Ngāti Korokoro, Te Kapotai and Ngāti Paeahi, Ngāti Rora, Ngāti Whēru, Ngāti Te Taonui) is an independent writer, researcher and advisor. He was New Zealand’s first Professor of Indigenous Studies. Rawiri is a well-known political writer who has written over 400 newspaper and magazine articles and book chapters. He has won seven writing awards. Dr Taonui has presented at the UN Experts Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He is a member of the Tribunal to Investigate Claims of Genocide in El Salvador.

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