Flavell, who served as co-leader from 2013 to 2017, said M\u0101ori haven’t liked the division, personal attacks, or inability to uphold tikanga. <\/p>\n
The former MP broke his silence in a social media post this morning while reflecting on the recent death of Whatarangi Winiata, the inaugural president of the M\u0101ori Party.<\/p>\n
“At Whatarangi’s tangi, I said openly that I believed that the current M\u0101ori Party was very different from the one that Whatarangi, with the rest of us, built,” he wrote in a post.<\/p>\n
“I said the party had lost its way. In my view, the party had moved away from the kaupapa, that is, how we conduct ourselves as M\u0101ori, how we would engage with others, and ultimately why we were there in the first place.<\/p>\n
The High Court\u00a0determined\u00a0that Kapa-Kingi should be reinstated into the party.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“Our people have not liked the infighting, the personal attacks, the inability to uphold tikanga, poor leadership, the absence of whakaiti (humility) when needed, and the constant accusations directed at one another and others.”<\/p>\n
He said he had deliberately stayed out of the party’s affairs since leaving Parliament, but the loss of Winiata and other kaum\u0101tua, alongside repeated approaches from conflicted supporters at tangi, had prompted him to speak.<\/p>\n
Former M\u0101ori Party co-leader: ‘I’ve lost faith’<\/p>\n
Flavell was direct about his own position, speaking to 1News.<\/p>\n
“I’ve lost faith in a style of leadership, and I’ve lost faith in an approach that I don’t think is right for now,” he told M\u0101ori Affairs Correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui.<\/p>\n
“Relationships are hugely important in Parliament, the ability to engage such that you can even if you had to make incremental changes in legislation.<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/te-ururoa-flavell-YVAYXQ5HRVEGDNDF24JHKF7WNA.jpg\")
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Te Ururoa Flavell. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n
“If you cannot work with other MPs and parties to get certain things over the line, then you’re resigned to simply receiving everything all of the time with no improvements”.<\/p>\n
Asked whether his call for a leadership change was directed at president John Tamihere or the party’s co-leaders, Flavell said it applied to “probably the whole lot”.<\/p>\n
“In terms of consideration about where they fit, because they are the leadership and everything is taken from the leadership pretty much.”<\/p>\n
Ngarewa-Packer: ‘growing pains’, focus on November<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, responding to Flavell’s Facebook post, said she had “huge respect” for him and it was “really important to take feedback”.<\/p>\n
“We’re a young movement, and we’re going to have lots of growing pains, but our focus at the moment has to be solely on getting this Government out, and that has been our intent,” she told media at Parliament.<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/te-pati-maori-co-leader-debbie-ngarewa-packer-responding-to-L7WBGKQEWVDSLCLSGVUUJ3MBDQ.jpg\")
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Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, responding to Flavell’s Facebook post (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“Things have really settled down from last year … this is a taonga that we have inherited, and it’s a taonga that we won’t walk away from.”<\/p>\n
Put to her that Flavell had said the party had lost its way and was not where it once was, Ngarewa-Packer said the party had to stay focused on what its people wanted.<\/p>\n
“I think again we have to stay focused on what it is that our people really want us to do, which is again stay focused on getting this Government out in November,” she said.<\/p>\n
Turmoil within the party has run for nearly a year. The national council expelled Kapa-Kingi and Ferris in November 2025, a decision Ferris called “plainly unconstitutional” and which the High Court partly overturned when it reinstated Kapa-Kingi’s membership. <\/p>\n