{"id":132613,"date":"2025-11-13T07:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T07:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/132613\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T07:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T07:58:10","slug":"ousted-te-pati-maori-mp-takuta-ferris-says-expulsion-a-joke-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/132613\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP T\u0101kuta Ferris says expulsion a \u2018joke\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOur mates, they weren\u2019t told we were getting expelled. They were told by the press release. This is the degree of the conduct, right? It\u2019s way below the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that would lead people to \u201cnaturally come to the conclusion, well, you can\u2019t exist in that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now expelled, so now Hana and Oriini are stuck, are trapped there. What are we going to do? Just leave that there like that? I don\u2019t think the people will agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferris, Kapa-Kingi, Kaipara and a representative for Maipi Clarke held a hui on Wednesday without their co-leaders.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe office of newly independent MPs T\u0101kuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. Photo \/ RNZ, Lillian Hanly<\/p>\n

Ferris said the meeting was simply about \u201cgetting back together\u201d and they did not discuss the possibility of forming a new party.<\/p>\n

Last week, before the expulsion, Ferris, Kapa-Kingi and Kaipara sent a letter to the national council of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori <\/a>requesting an \u201cimmediate audience\u201d to discuss some of their concerns about the party and the experiences of those three MPs.<\/p>\n

Ferris said they had yet to receive a response.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just sitting there being ignored, but it\u2019s got three signatures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree current MPs have signed that letter. Fifty per cent of your caucus have signed that letter \u2013 and they just ignored it and expelled two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaipara and Maipi-Clarke have yet to speak publicly following the expulsion, but both have posted on social media, addressing their electorates.<\/p>\n

\"TeTe P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Oriini Kaipara. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Ferris said it was going to be \u201cextremely awkward\u201d and \u201cextremely difficult\u201d for Kaipara and Maipi-Clarke in the party\u2019s offices at Parliament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When asked about the meeting between the MPs, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said on Wednesday they were entitled to meet with \u201cwhoever they want to meet with\u201d.<\/p>\n

She wasn\u2019t concerned about what was being discussed or the potential implications for the party.<\/p>\n

Back at Parliament<\/p>\n

Ferris told RNZ he was back at Parliament to \u201cdo a job\u201d and was planning to get on with his work as the representative of Te Tai Tonga.<\/p>\n

He said both he and Kapa-Kingi were still Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MPs when it came to the kaupapa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here for the kaupapa of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, not the personnel of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori. We\u2019re here for the vision that Whatarangi Winiata had and that Tariana Turia had, and that Pita Sharples had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferris confirmed he intended to challenge the expulsion process, questioning why so few people were part of the meeting where the decision was made.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi (right) and T\u0101kuta Ferris (left). Photo \/ RNZ, Liam K. Swiggs<\/p>\n

He said just 11 people attended that meeting when there should have been 36, and only two MPs when there should have been six.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of holes in it, it\u2019s just so easy to debunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Tai Tonga abstained from the vote, with Ngarewa-Packer pointing out on Monday the motion had gone \u201cwithout opposition\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ferris said the view of the Te Tai Tonga executive was that taking a position would suppose they agreed with the process in which the national council arrived at the motion being passed in the first place, so it chose to abstain.<\/p>\n

Ferris said no one had explained to him yet how he had breached the constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s come to explain to me exactly what the breaches are and explain how the breach occurred and whether there is or was an actual breach.\u201d<\/p>\n

RNZ understands one breach was Ferris doubling down on racially charged comments during the T\u0101maki Makaurau byelection<\/a>, comments party president John Tamihere later supported in essence.<\/p>\n

Ferris flatly rejected Tamihere\u2019s accusation that he had been plotting a leadership coup. Asked directly if he had leadership ambitions, he said he was \u201cleading Te Tai Tonga\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said a lot of meetings were still to take place before the upcoming AGM in early December and the people of Te Tai Tonga would be issuing a \u201cplease explain\u201d about his expulsion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all want answers from the executive. They expect answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately though, Ferris said the party \u201chas suffered\u201d and \u201ccontinues to suffer reputational damage\u201d and an assessment would need to be made at some point whether that could be repaired.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we have the time or the energy or the resources available to repair that, whilst we\u2019ve got to move all our people towards making sure that the Government goes away next year?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people will speak up. The pressure will be so immense from outside that the only option will be to reorganise the party and the national council will step in and do the job they\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferris said Tamihere needed to step down or the party would have no future.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo future because the people won\u2019t follow it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if there\u2019s no people, there\u2019s no nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOur mates, they weren\u2019t told we were getting expelled. They were told by the press release. This is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[91057,91056,40627,42,91058,40626,2720,6368,43,56458,46800,312,8690,91055,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-132613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-expulsion","tag-ferris","tag-hanly","tag-headlines","tag-joke","tag-lillian","tag-mori","tag-mp","tag-news","tag-ousted","tag-pti","tag-says","tag-te","tag-tkuta","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132613","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=132613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}