Te Pāti Māori President John Tamihere joins Waatea as Election 2026 enters a crucial phase, with the party campaigning on a major redistribution of the tax burden, a stronger constitutional role for Te Tiriti o Waitangi and a strategy aimed at maximising Māori representation in the next Parliament.
The contest is becoming increasingly stark. Te Pāti Māori is proposing significant structural change around tax and Te Tiriti, while ACT is campaigning for a fundamentally different constitutional direction and has unveiled a party list that could bring broadcaster Paul Henry into Parliament on current polling.
For Tamihere, the bigger question is whether Māori voters see this election as simply choosing a government — or an opportunity to reshape where political and economic power sits in Aotearoa.
97 PERCENT WOULD PAY LESS UNDER TAX PLAN
Te Pāti Māori has put household finances at the centre of its economic pitch with its Kiwi Tax Plan, saying the wealthiest 3 percent should contribute more while almost everybody else receives tax relief.
Its centrepiece is making the first $30,000 of personal income tax-free.
The party estimates about 4.2 million people would receive around $4,000 more each year as a result of its proposed changes. People earning $60,000 or less would also receive a targeted kai tax credit equivalent to eight weeks each year.
The plan would introduce a progressive wealth tax beginning at 1.5 percent on net assets between $2 million and $5 million, rising to 2 percent between $5 million and $10 million and 2.5 percent above $10 million.
Te Pāti Māori argues the policy is not about Māori against non-Māori but shifting more of the tax burden away from ordinary working households and towards those with substantial wealth.
That puts it directly against National, which has campaigned on no new taxes, while Labour and the Greens are proposing their own forms of capital and wealth taxation.
TE TIRITI BECOMES A DEFINING ELECTION DIVIDE
But tax is only one side of the argument.
Te Pāti Māori is also campaigning for a much stronger constitutional recognition of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, tino rangatiratanga and Māori political authority.
That puts the party on a collision course with ACT.
ACT’s election policy proposes removing vague or high-level Treaty clauses as legislation is amended, restricting when tikanga can influence court decisions and requiring governments to spell out the specific obligations created whenever Treaty references are included in new legislation.
ACT also wants Parliament’s sovereignty, the rule of law and equality before the law written as principles into the Constitution Act.
Te Pāti Māori approaches the constitutional debate from almost the opposite direction, arguing Te Tiriti provides the foundation for the relationship between Māori and the Crown and should carry greater practical force within government and law.
That creates one of the clearest choices facing Māori voters this election.
WAITANGI TRIBUNAL NOW PART OF THE BATTLE
The divide has widened further with ACT proposing that the Waitangi Tribunal ultimately be disestablished after eligible historical claims have been completed, while its ability to investigate contemporary Crown actions would end.
That proposal is likely to feature heavily in Tamihere’s election argument.
The Tribunal was created in 1975 with jurisdiction over contemporary Crown actions, with its ability to investigate historical claims retrospectively back to 1840 added in 1985.
For Te Pāti Māori, the contemporary jurisdiction matters because the party argues breaches of Te Tiriti are not confined to history.
ACT sees the issue differently, arguing Treaty interpretation and tikanga have been allowed to expand too far into government and the courts. Its wider constitutional policy would restrict the ability of unelected institutions to shape those interpretations.
ACT LIST RAISES THE STAKES
The political contest is also becoming a numbers game.
ACT’s newly announced party list means Paul Henry could enter Parliament depending on the party’s election-night support, adding another high-profile figure to an already sharply contested campaign.
For Te Pāti Māori, that makes its own electoral strategy particularly important.
The party has made clear it wants Māori voters to concentrate their electorate vote on Te Pāti Māori candidates, while giving voters greater freedom with their party vote as part of a broader strategy to increase the parliamentary strength of the left bloc.
That is an unusual strategy, but the mathematics are deliberate.
Winning Māori electorates can potentially increase the party’s representation independently of its share of the nationwide party vote.
THE TAMIHERE TEST
For John Tamihere, Election 2026 brings together several battles Te Pāti Māori has been fighting simultaneously.
Who carries the greatest share of the tax burden?
How much constitutional force should Te Tiriti have?
Should the Waitangi Tribunal continue examining contemporary Crown decisions?
And can Māori use the electoral system strategically to increase their political representation?
The answers offered by Te Pāti Māori and ACT could hardly be further apart.
One is campaigning for greater recognition of Te Tiriti, tino rangatiratanga and redistribution of wealth. The other is campaigning to constrain Treaty clauses and tikanga within the law and strengthen the principle of equal treatment under a single legal framework.
For Tamihere, that means the remaining weeks of the campaign are about more than winning seats.
They are about convincing Māori that Election 2026 could determine the direction of Te Tiriti, taxation and Māori political power for years to come.
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