Tamihere instead to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\nArriving at Parliament on Tuesday morning, Waititi told media the party’s national council now had a “process in play” regarding whether to expel Kapa-Kingi and Ferris from the party.<\/p>\n
“That’s not a decision for me. That is a decision for the electorates. We’ve taken it back to the people.”<\/p>\n
The party’s national council includes representatives from all six electorates held by the MPs.<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4K7GO8D_Urgent_Debate_07_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nMariameno Kapa-Kingi.
\nPhoto: VNP \/ Phil Smith\n<\/p>\n
Asked whether the party might invoke the waka-jumping provision to eject the two MPs from Parliament altogether, Waititi said their electorate seats had been “determined by their voters”.<\/p>\n
“They are MPs of those particular electorates,” he said.<\/p>\n
Waititi said he stood by Tamihere as president and pinned blame for the internal ructions on “allegations and two rogue MPs” gearing up for a leadership coup.<\/p>\n
“All in good time you will find that out,” he said.<\/p>\n
Waititi confirmed he would meet with representatives from the Iwi Chairs Forum later today to “solidify the kaupapa”.<\/p>\n
“We’re cleaning up our whare,” he said. “Our tipuna traversed the oceans to get here and many storms, and we will get through this.<\/p>\n
“We will go through a reset. Resets don’t happen overnight and resets will continue as we continue to build the momentum of our M\u0101ori voice here.”<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4K6A44Q_Image_1_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nT\u0101kuta Ferris.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
Iwi Chairs Forum spokesperson Bayden Barber told RNZ on Monday iwi leaders were going to “give it our best shot” to reconcile the differences.<\/p>\n
Tamihere avoided reporters on his way into Parliament on Tuesday morning, ducking into an apartment building’s parking lot.<\/p>\n
Earlier, he told RNZ’s Morning Report the party’s leadership would “very shortly” consider whether to expel Kapa-Kingi and Ferris.<\/p>\n
When asked directly if he still wanted the two MPs in the party, Tamihere said: “Not if they continue to be rogue.”<\/p>\n
In a statement to RNZ, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said Tamihere did not speak for her Tai Tokerau electorate.<\/p>\n
“The people voted me as an electorate member, I’m proud to say, and therefore I’m not going anywhere. I have a job to do and I plan to continue to do it best way I know how – show up, prepare and remember who you represent.”<\/p>\n
Asked for comment, Ferris said only that his electorate’s executive would be sending out a statement “in due course”.<\/p>\n
Speaking before a caucus meeting on Tuesday, Labour leader Chris Hipkins reiterated his calls for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori to “sort themselves out”.<\/p>\n
“But I’d also remind people that four years ago, the National Party was tearing itself apart, and now they’re in government.”<\/p>\n
Senior Labour MP Willie Jackson, a long-time friend of Tamihere, said he would not be taking sides.<\/p>\n
“We’re sitting back … and just watching how this rolls out.”<\/p>\n
Jackson said Labour would not be welcoming any defectors. He said the party was prepared in the case of any by-elections.<\/p>\n
“We would be irresponsible if we weren’t ready … given all the talk coming out of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori.”<\/p>\n
ACT leader David Seymour said Labour had a big problem because it needed Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori’s numbers to take power.<\/p>\n
“They’ve got more coup-papa than kaupapa.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Rawiri Waititi. Photo: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori’s co-leader Rawiri Waititi is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-116568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}