The Parliamentary Services letter told the MP \u201cyou now have $4986 for the remainder of the term. Urgent action is required to at least cover your staff costs (about $25,000 monthly)\u201d.<\/p>\n
The letter said any overspend would need to be covered by Kapa-Kingi personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at a point where we need to start taking actions immediately to manage the large overspend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter listed a range of recommendations, including specifically cutting engagement with contractor Eru Kapa-Kingi\/Tautoru. It asks whether a July invoice is expected, and \u201cif so, why are we still engaging with Eru?\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter also recommended:<\/p>\n
Bringing forward a 10% portion \u2013 or $50,000 \u2013 of the MP\u2019s year three budget to cover staff costs to about mid-September;Reducing casual staff hours to zero;Stopping all travel for staff and reducing all staff pcard limits to $1;Considering a restructure of staffing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t have a satisfactory resolution, this issue will be taken to the Speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori president John Tamihere. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n
Two days later, Tamihere appears to have emailed Mariameno regarding the \u201curgent requirement to resolve significant financial over-expenditure out of your Office\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi did not address the overspend allegations when the documents were sent to party members on Monday night last week. <\/p>\n
Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told the Herald the matter had been \u201cresolved\u201d, indicating funding meant for next year would be brought forward. <\/p>\n
This afternoon, Kapa-Kingi released a statement online to address allegations made regarding her \u201cconduct as an MP\u201d. <\/p>\n
She claimed the Te Tai Tokerau budget, used for costs incurred as an electorate MP such as employing staff, had \u201cnot ever been overspent\u201d. <\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi then explained she had her budget adjusted to help Kemp amid Kemp\u2019s battle with kidney disease, as well as extra work as the party\u2019s whip, which she claimed was \u201cencouraged\u201d by the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leadership approved the payment of the first tranche of the work, indicating the arrangements were suitable and sufficient,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPayment happened without contest or alarm. I continued with the same arrangements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori leadership would support further budget reallocation to cover the requirements of this role they entrusted me with. For whatever reason, they did not. <\/p>\n
\u201cFortunately, the Speaker of the House [Gerry Brownlee] (who has the last say on all budgetary matters) approved my budget adjustments and confirmed no rules had been breached.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe leaders were well aware of this extra work and the approval made by the Speaker. I remain unsure why this budget reallocation was shared publicly without the context it was made in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kapa-Kingi also addressed speculation about her future as an MP. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say this clearly: I am here. I am still your MP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has taken some time to process and determine the most appropriate way to respond without also getting caught up in the unforgivable storm of the mainstream media or pulling away from the most important kaupapa on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the caption of her social media post, Kapa-Kingi said she \u201cwon\u2019t be commenting any further on these matters. Time to get back to mahi for my people\u201d. <\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Parliamentary Services letter told the MP \u201cyou now have $4986 for the remainder of the term. Urgent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67300,74,26676,38501,11357,34893,46662,42,52147,52146,2720,6368,43,90,67298,67299,4762,46800,13181,4990,22704,11165,53316,8690,40,38,41,39,21419],"class_list":["post-89240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-67300","tag-after","tag-allegations","tag-breaks","tag-budget","tag-documents","tag-headed","tag-headlines","tag-kapakingi","tag-mariameno","tag-mori","tag-mp","tag-news","tag-on","tag-overspend","tag-overspent","tag-party","tag-pti","tag-released","tag-releasing","tag-responding","tag-silence","tag-suggesting","tag-te","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-towards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89240","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=89240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}