Kapa-Kingi, one of the home speakers, is as tied to the breakdown of the party as any. It was his accusations of a dictatorial leadership that thrust the party\u2019s internal rifts into public eye.<\/p>\n
He is also the son of Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who won Te Tai Tokerau for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori in 2023 but is now battling her party in court, awaiting the judge\u2019s verdict on the validity of her 2025 expulsion from the party.<\/p>\n
Eru, a lead figure in the influential Toit\u016b Te Tiriti protest movement, used his time on the paepae to demand both Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and Labour \u201csort yourself out\u201d.<\/p>\n
Eru Kapa-Kingi had sharp criticism for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and Labour. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely Labour was referenced after MP Peeni Henare\u2019s resignation, which many are speculating was caused by internal troubles, a claim the party continues to hose down.<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, namely its co-leaders and members of its executive, has maintained Eru\u2019s broadside should have been managed internally or at least on the marae where fierce k\u014drero is common.<\/p>\n
So when the 29-year-old son of a \u201crogue\u201d MP who\u2019s called Waititi a dictator told the co-leader to get his s*** together, many would\u2019ve expected Waititi to immediately respond in kind.<\/p>\n
Instead, Waititi thanked his party\u2019s former vice-president. Speaking without his co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who was with her ill husband, Waititi expressed his appreciation that Eru had raised his concerns in the appropriate setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can hear the anger and feel the pain and the courage to stand before the people to lay out what you had to say,\u201d Waititi said, acknowledging Eru was simply \u201cspeaking on behalf of your mother\u201d.<\/p>\n
As he shifted on to the corrupting nature of the House, it offered the perfect opportunity to rise above the raruraru [conflict] and call for peace and a renewed commitment to replacing the coalition Government.<\/p>\n
Rawiri Waititi was without his party co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, at Waitangi. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
But no such call came. He chastised those who amplified Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori\u2019s troubles publicly and declared his party will inevitably decide whether a left-leaning coalition is possible. <\/p>\n
Perhaps realistically, he confessed, \u201cThis kotahitanga, unity, it is difficult. If it was easy, our ancestors would have accomplished it themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
To conclude, Waititi and party members performed a famous Tair\u0101whiti haka. Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, Waititi\u2019s wife and the daughter of party president John Tamihere, advanced toward those on the hau k\u0101inga (the home people).<\/p>\n
As she drew within inches of the front row where Eru was seated, Mariameno \u2013 watching from the marae\u2019s verandah – jumped up from her chair and snapped, \u201choki atu\u201d or \u201cgo back\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was a moment of real tension and one which anyone without an understanding of marae tikanga might have viewed as a line crossed. <\/p>\n
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones later told the Herald Waititi-Tamihere\u2019s actions were \u201ctotally in keeping with M\u0101ori culture\u201d. <\/p>\n
Shane Jones felt the conduct was well within marae tikanga. Photo \/ Jason Dorday <\/p>\n
However, he noted it proved an \u201cirreversible rupture\u201d within the party.<\/p>\n
Mariameno later took an opportunity to say her piece. Standing by her son, she demanded: \u201cI am not going anywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both the Kapa-Kingis and the party leadership are awaiting Judge Paul Radich\u2019s decision after Monday\u2019s court hearing in Wellington, which considered Mariameno\u2019s challenge to her expulsion from the party alongside Te Tai Tonga MP T\u0101kuta Ferris.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s proceedings only further deepen the rift between the MP and her party. It again raises the increasingly imminent question of what happens should Radich return Mariameno to Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori permanently.<\/p>\n
The party\u2019s attempt to hold another vote on the MP\u2019s expulsion suggests there is an appetite to try again to push her out. Its leadership will be all too aware of its obligations under the party\u2019s constitution, which has regularly failed to pass muster under a legal microscope.<\/p>\n
Regardless, it sets up what could be an ugly fight for Te Tai Tokerau this election if one combines Mariameno\u2019s refusal to budge, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori\u2019s intense motivation to beat her and Labour\u2019s commitment to win back the M\u0101ori seats. That\u2019s even without mentioning a strong Greens contender in Huhana Lyndon. <\/p>\n
Today\u2019s p\u014dwhiri gives New Zealand\u2019s voting public as good a preview of the election campaign as they could expect. <\/p>\n
From left: Tama Potaka, Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters and David Seymour all spoke during the p\u014dwhiri today. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Speeches from Christopher Luxon and David Seymour were tepid but relentlessly on message. Being poles apart on what comes after Act\u2019s failed Treaty Principles Bill shapes as a key tension point that doesn\u2019t seem likely to abate.<\/p>\n
Winston Peters was typically provocative, declaring Waitangi celebrations should rise above performative politics before warning any doubters they\u2019ll soon be proven wrong.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Labour, the Greens and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori \u2013 the two former starting the week trying to resemble unity and political consensus by excluding the latter \u2013 present as being as chaotic as the coalition they paint with the same title.<\/p>\n
Welcome to election year 2026.<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the deputy political editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s press gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kapa-Kingi, one of the home speakers, is as tied to the breakdown of the party as any. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9980,1975,31578,3278,78,7973,2720,111,43,139,69,1118,9981,46800,9865,152796,8690,37454,27704],"class_list":["post-269154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adam","tag-at","tag-chances","tag-facts","tag-in","tag-leaves","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-pearse","tag-pti","tag-reconciliation","tag-ruin","tag-te","tag-tension","tag-waitangi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269154","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=269154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}