{"id":273082,"date":"2026-02-08T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/273082\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T01:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T01:00:09","slug":"te-pati-maori-faces-election-wipeout-lucky-to-keep-one-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/273082\/","title":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori faces election wipeout, ‘lucky’ to keep one seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori may be reduced to a single seat at this year’s election, veteran Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe says.<\/p>\n

Rurawhe, who was one of his party’s most senior M\u0101ori leaders, announced his retirement last month<\/a>. He spoke to Q+A as he reflected on his decades involved in M\u0101ori politics, his time as Parliament’s Speaker, and the state of frontline politics today.<\/p>\n

Asked about Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori’s chances at November’s election<\/a>, Rurawhe was blunt about his opinion after months of infighting in the support party. <\/p>\n

“They’ll be lucky to keep one [seat],” he said. “I believe if it’s consistent across the whole country of what I’m hearing, then they will be lucky to have one seat.”<\/p>\n

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori won six of the seven Maori seats at the last election<\/a>, its strongest ever result.<\/p>\n

Rurawhe, who supported the original M\u0101ori Party before leaving over its decision to align with National, said the current incarnation bore little resemblance to the party co-founded by Tariana Turia, whom he supported closely.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the party that Tariana Turia started. It’s a different party today,” he said.<\/p>\n

First elected in 2014,\u00a0Henare has not sought a nomination for a seat, or a place on the party list.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“They could have learned a lot from the likes of Tariana and Pita Sharples and Te Ururoa Flavell and the way that they operated in Parliament. <\/p>\n

“They seem to currently operate outside the rules of Parliament and think that the rules don’t apply to them, whereas Tariana knew how to navigate through standing orders.”<\/p>\n

He said those standing orders were “very English” in origin, and everyone in Parliament had to navigate them, but doing so required relationships across the house.<\/p>\n

“You can almost do anything by leave of the house, but you need the relationships across the whole Parliament to do it.”<\/p>\n

Labour’s lessons from govt, Henare departure<\/p>\n

Rurawhe, who served as the Te Tai Hau\u0101ura MP for three terms, also offered a candid reflection on Labour’s time in government, saying the party should’ve done more to bring the public along on key M\u0101ori policies.<\/p>\n

He said that while he had advocated for a M\u0101ori Health Authority, Rurawhe said in hindsight that Labour had not convinced the broader electorate of the need for it.<\/p>\n

“Unless people see themselves in the policy, they’re not going to support it,” he said.<\/p>\n

If Labour were to pursue similar policies again, Rurawhe said the party would need to take a different approach, focusing on outcomes rather than structures.<\/p>\n

“I think it is to concentrate less on the M\u0101ori Health Authority and focus more on achieving the outcomes that we want for M\u0101ori health,” he said.<\/p>\n

Rurawhe’s departure alongside fellow Labour MP Peeni Henare<\/a> means the party is losing two of its most experienced Maori MPs ahead of the election.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there had been more to Henare’s decision to leave than had been made public, the former speaker declined to speculate.<\/p>\n

“Not that I’m aware of, but people have all sorts of different reasons for leaving.”<\/p>\n

For the full interview, watch the video above.<\/p>\n

Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori may be reduced to a single seat at this year’s election, veteran Labour MP Adrian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8028,4432,111,43,139,69,135,8027,10872],"class_list":{"0":"post-273082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-labour-party","9":"tag-maori-issues","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-te-pati-maori","16":"tag-torangapu"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273082","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=273082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}