John Tamihere<\/a>, not co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.<\/p>\nIn Te Tai Tokerau, the one-term MP will face Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime and the Greens’ H\u016bhana Lyndon in what’s shaping up to be a competitive race.<\/p>\n
TPM says it will run against Kapa-Kingi<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori responded to the Te Tai Tokerau MP’s move this afternoon, saying it acknowledged the announcement and wished Kapa-Kingi well.<\/p>\n
“Te ao M\u0101ori has always carried many voices, many rohe, many whakapapa, and many expressions of mana motuhake. We respect the right of wh\u0101nau, hap\u016b, iwi, rohe and candidates to determine their own political pathway,” a party spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
They said the party “will contest all seven M\u0101ori electorates,” with “five confirmed candidates in Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Oriini Kaipara, Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Haley Maxwell, with our full team to be announced in due course”.<\/p>\n
Kingi Kiriona will contest the seat held by Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke in this year\u2019s general election. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“Our movement is bigger than any one seat, candidate, or moment,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Rawiri Waititi told 1News he had only just found out about the new party after getting off a plane from Japan. <\/p>\n
Waititi said he “wished her all the luck with that”. <\/p>\n
Asked if he was frustrated, he said his biggest frustration was the distraction from the party’s goal of making the current coalition a one-term government.<\/p>\n
“Like I’ve always said, there’s no one-term government without Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori,” he said.<\/p>\n
Waititi also rejected suggestions that Hauraki-Waikato MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was also considering her future within the party.<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/te-pati-maori-co-leader-rawiri-waititi-E4I2LKPZ45EPDADVVFJQRFT5FU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Rawiri Waititi (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“No, that’s not true at all. I’ve had several conversations with Hana. She’s very much part of the party, continues to support the party, and is very much an MP for the party, and is also looking forward to making sure that this is a one term government,” he said. <\/p>\n
“She will continue the good mahi that she’s been doing for the last three years.”<\/p>\n
Asked why there was talk of further splits within the party, he acknowledged there was “speculation” of new parties. “I know a few names have been thrown around in terms of the speculating of new parties and things like that,” Waititi said.<\/p>\n
“All I know for fact is that there’s one new party that’s been created today.”<\/p>\n
‘Our responsibility spans across the motu’<\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi said that while “our foundation is Te Tai Tokerau. Our responsibility spans across the motu … For too long, our people have been asked to fit into systems that were not designed by us, for us, or with us in mind. <\/p>\n
“Te Tai Tokerau Party is about saying our communities have the wisdom, the data, the leadership and the strength to shape their own political future.”<\/p>\n
P\u00a0Mariameno\u00a0Kapa-Kingi is challenging the party\u2019s decision to expel her amidst claims of a dictatorship and misused funds. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
Speaking in her interview with The Hui, Kapa-Kingi signalled she would be open to working across the political spectrum after the November 7 election, including with National and Christopher Luxon, if it served Te Tai Tokerau.<\/p>\n
Asked whether she would pick up the phone if Luxon called seeking her support to form a government, Kapa-Kingi said: “Imagine having Te Tai Tokerau at that table … of course I’d have to be open to that conversation.”<\/p>\n
She said her cousin, NZ First MP Shane Jones, was someone she had a “respectful relationship with”, and indicated she was open to conversations with ACT leader David Seymour as well. “Who knows what’s possible?” Kapa-Kingi said.<\/p>\n
More details to come, MP says<\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi said she hoped the party would spark a broader conversation across Aotearoa about what self-determined politics could look like for other rohe or regions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope other rohe are inspired to build independent political powerhouses for their people across the motu,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding our Hawaiki looks like working together with other rohe to achieve mutual interests for the long-term wellbeing of mokopuna, while protecting our specific mana and identity. Me mahi ng\u0101tahi ka tika.”<\/p>\n
The announcement, made today via a media release, follows a prolonged period of internal conflict within Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n
Further details on Te Tai Tokerau Party’s leadership structure and policy priorities are expected to be “released in due course”, according to the statement.<\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi was suspended and expelled from Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori on November 10 last year after the party’s national council alleged she had misused funds and brought the party into disrepute. Te Tai Tonga MP Tak\u016bta Ferris was also expelled at the time.<\/p>\n
Her son, former party executive Eru Kapa-Kingi, had earlier accused the party leadership of running a “dictatorship model”<\/a>.<\/p>\nKapa-Kingi challenged her expulsion in the High Court, where Justice Paul Radich ruled in March that her suspension and expulsion had been “unlawful under the party’s constitution” and ordered her reinstatement.<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori’s internal troubles have been attributed to Tamihere, who has come in for criticism from some wings of the party.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Whakaata M\u0101ori last week, Tamihere said: “The gift of understanding what’s going on in Te Tai Tokerau is not mine at the moment; it’s incumbent on her.”<\/p>\n
\u2014 additional reporting by 1News Political Producer Tom Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has launched a new political party to contest the election, splitting from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,4432,43,135,8027,40,38,41,39,10872],"class_list":["post-422550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-maori-issues","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-te-pati-maori","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-torangapu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422550","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=422550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mariameno](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778519170_716_mariameno-kapa-kingi-Q4LIZYOGMVCWZD4JGPF6HFKJGU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n