expulsion from Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori <\/a>and he told Q+A he wanted to back a left-leaning government.<\/p>\nInterviewer Jack Tame asked whether Ferris would, in theory, work with a government led by Christopher Luxon. <\/p>\n
Ferris said: \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t support a Christopher Luxon-led government. We would support a left-led government.<\/p>\n
“But you know, in this election, this is going to be one of the closest elections this country has ever seen. So if it turns out that we don’t get a left-leaning government, then we really have to think about what we’re going to do in that regard. <\/p>\n
“Do we just leave our people to suffer another three years of this sort of behaviour, which will only get worse, or do we do something about it, whatever it is we can do?”<\/p>\n
He did not explain what that might involve.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the interview, Ferris agreed with iwi leader Tuku Morgan\u2019s June description of the coalition as \u201cthe most racist anti-M\u0101ori government ever to come to power\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccurate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ferris won Te Tai Tonga for Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori at the 2023 election, unseating Labour\u2019s Rino Tirikatene. It is the country\u2019s largest electorate by area and covers the whole South Island, Wellington, Rakiura Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands.<\/p>\n
He was expelled from the party in November last year, after months of public infighting over its leadership and direction. With the general election next month, Ferris was now contesting his electorate without a party behind him.<\/p>\n
Ferris also appeared to retreat from last year\u2019s social media post objecting to non-M\u0101ori campaigning in M\u0101ori electorates, which were criticised as racist.<\/p>\n
Pressed by Tame, he said: \u201cI think that it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he maintained a claim that his objection had been to Labour and the main parties using \u201cethnic New Zealand to diminish M\u0101ori rights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ferris confirmed he and Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who was also expelled from Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, would keep caucusing together if both returned to Parliament.<\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi took Te Tai Tokerau from Labour\u2019s Kelvin Davis in 2023.<\/p>\n
Both Kapa-Kingi and Ferris were expelled after months of public infighting that exposed deep rifts within Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori. Kapa-Kingi was expelled from Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori alongside Ferris last November, but the High Court later ruled her expulsion unlawful. <\/p>\n
Ferris said the \u201cway forward\u201d for the M\u0101ori seats was \u201cfor them to all act independently\u201d, while coming together to \u201cchampion issues for te iwi M\u0101ori\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I look around at the moment, I don\u2019t see policies for Hauraki Waikato on any table. I don’t see policies for Te Tair\u0101whiti or for Ikaroa-R\u0101whiti on the table,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But I do see policies for Te Tai Tokerau and for Te Tai Tonga on the table. That sort of party mantle just tends to diffuse that clear and explicit reo o te rohe, which I think people deserve.”<\/p>\n
Ferris put his split from the party down to “a parting of values”. <\/p>\n
He said the leadership had been reluctant to \u201csit down and have the k\u014drero that was required\u201d. He denied he had ever planned to challenge co-leader Rawiri Waititi.<\/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":"Independent Te Tai Tonga MP T\u0101kuta Ferris says he won\u2019t support a Luxon-led government, but did not say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4432,111,43,139,69,135,8027,10872,270122],"class_list":["post-634112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-maori-issues","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-te-pati-maori","tag-torangapu","tag-vote-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634112","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=634112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}