{"id":62664,"date":"2025-10-06T22:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62664\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T22:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T22:19:11","slug":"te-pati-maori-president-bats-off-questions-about-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/62664\/","title":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori president bats off questions about leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori president John Tamihere is batting away questions about the party’s leadership<\/a> after a former ally accused the party of operating like a “dictatorship<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

Arriving at Parliament on Tuesday morning, Tamihere told reporters the party would not answer “claims and allegations” and was focused on T\u0101maki Makaurau this week, with new MP Oriini Kaipara set to be sworn in.<\/p>\n

Toit\u016b te Tiriti spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi last week raised concerns about the party’s leadership style, saying it was “problematic” and “effectively a dictatorship model”.<\/p>\n

Asked for his response, Tamihere paused and replied: “It’s a beautiful thing.”<\/p>\n

\"Eru<\/p>\n

Eru Kapa-Kingi. (Source: rnz.co.nz)<\/p>\n

Tamihere dismissed further questions, saying reporters should speak to instead to Kapa-Kingi as “we’re here for other matters.”<\/p>\n

“We don’t answer claims and allegations. We’re focused on T\u0101maki Makaurau and we’re focused on [Hauraki-Waikato MP] Hana Maipi-Clarke.”<\/p>\n

Maipi-Clarke was recently recognised by Time magazine<\/a> as one of “the world’s most influential rising stars”.<\/p>\n

Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori last week announced a planned “reset”<\/a> for Thursday, following Kaipara’s maiden speech.<\/p>\n

\"Oriini<\/p>\n

Oriini Kaipara, byelection winner for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Tamihere said reporters would have to “come along on Thursday to find out” what that entailed.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the party was disappointed these allegations were circulating during Kaipara’s first week, Tamihere responded: “what do you think?”<\/p>\n

Tamihere also downplayed reports that Toit\u016b te Tiriti had cut ties with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, saying the group had since “repudiated the statement.”<\/p>\n

On Friday, Toit\u016b te Tiriti<\/a> posted a statement on social media, saying it was “maintaining independence from all political parties to ensure the kaupapa remains open to everyone”.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a man\u2019s arrested over an attack on Winston Peters\u2019 house, why hundreds of people might need to resit their driving test, and will the \u2018Mushroom Murder\u2019 case see duelling appeals? (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

“This is not about ‘cutting ties,’ but about ensuring Mana Motuhake and independence for the kaupapa.<\/p>\n

“Commentary circulating in the media beyond this reflects individual views, not the collective position of Toit\u016b te Tiriti.”<\/p>\n

In a statement issued last week, a Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori spokesperson said the party supported Toit\u016b Te Tiriti’s independence.<\/p>\n

“This was always our vision: that the kaupapa be carried and grown by the people themselves, not by any political party or individual,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

By Lillian Hanly of rnz.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori president John Tamihere is batting away questions about the party’s leadership after a former ally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69,135,8027,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-62664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-te-pati-maori","14":"tag-wellington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62664","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=62664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}