The rapid and public collapse of the once seemingly unified party has members of Te Pāti Māori demanding answers from their leadership.
We should all spare a thought for John Tamihere. At the end of last year, the Pāti Māori president was likely lounging by the pool on a warm summer’s evening, enjoying a cold drink and basking in the momentum his party was enjoying. Support for Te Pāti Māori was polling at record highs on the back of the Toitū Te Tiriti movement, its youngest MP had gone viral, and the party had more MPs than ever before. The future was looking bright. However, things can change quickly in politics.
In just under 12 months, the Tamihere-led Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency had its long-held funding cut, Eru Kapa-Kingi resigned as the party’s vice president, sitting Tāmaki Makaurau MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp passed away, Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi was on track to overspend her budget by an alleged $133,000, Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris publicly made racist comments, and the party had a very public falling out after allegations of a “dictatorship” model of governance made by Eru Kapa-Kingi (see here for a timeline of events).
As this tumultuous period comes to a head, some things have become glaringly obvious: there are internal factions within Te Pāti Māori that appear to be beyond repair, the party’s senior leadership has no control over its caucus, and there is a dire need for the implementation of robust processes within Te Pāti Māori in order to avoid such public and rapid deterioration of public perception in the future.
As the saying goes, you have to look back to know where you’re going. It was June this year when it was announced that Te Pou Matakana Limited (the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency) would be investigated for using public funds for electioneering purposes – namely encouraging eligible people to switch from the general electoral roll to the Māori roll.
Although the investigation eventually cleared Te Pou Matakana Limited of any wrongdoing, the saga highlighted systemic issues within the Whānau Ora ecosystem: Tamihere took out a $385,000 interest-free loan from the overarching entity Waipareira Trust to pay for an electoral campaign, it had $75 million sitting idle in cash, a $20m surplus, the highest paid executive group of any charity in the country (an average of over $500,000 per position), and was spending money encouraging people to change electoral rolls – all while the people it was supposed to be helping were struggling to simply put food on the table.
Combined with an investigation into the misuse of data by Manurewa Marae and Waipareira Trust – which also found insufficient grounds for action – Tamihere’s brand, and subsequently that of Te Pāti Māori, took a major hit. Following the announcement in March that Whānau Ora funding was changing hands, Tamihere was asked if he would be willing to forego his presidency of the party in order to give the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency a greater sense of political neutrality. He said no, and questioned why he should have to give up his ability to be president of a political party and also effectively in control of tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money.
Only a couple of weeks after the Whānau Ora announcement, Eru Kapa-Kingi resigned from his role as party vice president. At the same time, there was an unsuccessful motion made to have Tamihere removed as party president. Around six months later, Kapa-Kingi made a public statement that Toitū Te Tiriti – the movement that had been established as a “soft bridge in and around” for support of Te Pāti Māori – was intending to distance itself from the party. Although this messaging was contradicted by other representatives of Toitū Te Tiriti, the damage was done. Supporters of both the movement and the party were understandably confused, and the internal fractures of Te Pāti Māori were becoming increasingly evident.
Now, with members of Te Pāti Māori demanding answers from their leadership, there has been a very public unravelling of the once seemingly unified party. In an email sent to party members on Monday, Te Pāti Māori made accusations that Mariameno Kapa-Kingi was previously on track to overspend her office’s allowance, in part due to contracting her son Eru for $120,000 per annum. This was combined with an allegation that Eru had committed what the party described as an assault against parliamentary staffers, though police confirmed to The Spinoff that they were not involved in any such incident.
According to reports, following the release of the email to members, a motion was made by Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris – himself recently at odds with party leadership – for a vote of no confidence in the party’s president and national council. It’s all a lot to digest and only leaves a sour taste in the mouth of supporters of Te Pāti Māori, Eru Kapa-Kingi and Toitū Te Tiriti. Many questions remain around the party’s handling of these issues and importantly, what comes next for the party.
In its constitution, Te Pāti Māori has a disciplinary and disputes committee composed of five members who are chosen by the party’s national council. This committee is “self-determining” and only takes instruction from the national council. The national council is made up of the party’s president, two co-vice presidents, two co-leaders, MPs and up to four council members selected by each electorate (including rangatahi and both wāhine and tāne) or their substitute as determined by each electorate.
Misusing party funds for personal benefit or bringing the party into disrepute – such as by making harmful public or media statements – is considered a serious dispute. If the people involved cannot resolve the issue themselves, it must go to the electorate council. Any serious complaint must first be put in writing to that council. If the matter still can’t be resolved, it is then referred to the disciplinary and disputes committee. A member cannot send a complaint directly to the national executive unless the complaint is about the electorate council itself. In that case, it goes straight to the party president. The president may choose to settle it personally or pass it on to the national council for resolution. Complaints handled in this way do not go to the disciplinary and disputes committee.
There is no publicly available information about who is on any of these committees or councils, bar the listing of John Tamihere as party president, Fallyn Flavell as vice-president wahine and Lance Norman as secretary/treasurer. In a statement made at the beginning of the month, Te Pāti Māori claimed no complaints had been made through formal channels, though some reports alleged otherwise.
However, it appears none of the party’s internal disputes process has been followed and instead, we have witnessed a very public attempt by those involved to assassinate each other’s characters. It raises the question as to why it has played out like this. If Te Pāti Māori wanted to clear its name and prove it wasn’t a dictatorship, as was being claimed by Eru Kapa-Kingi, then why not produce evidence to the contrary? Instead, Te Pāti Māori has chosen to publicly expose its internal flaws and sabotage the character of a sitting MP who remains a member of the party.
If the issue was simply a matter of poor financial management by Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, then why not deal with it internally instead of emailing members, knowing your correspondence will be leaked? What is the point of exposing an alleged assault carried out by Eru Kapa-Kingi except to smear his name in order to make his claims against your party appear weaker? The path Te Pāti Māori has chosen does nothing but damage the confidence of its supporters and highlight its inability to sort issues in a tikanga Māori way, as it so proudly claims to do.
There is nothing tika or pono about the process Te Pāti Māori has followed regarding these issues. Instead, it appears to be a crusade from the party’s senior leaders to defend their reputations, whatever the cost. The only winners from this debacle are the parties in parliament that will welcome disillusioned Te Pāti Māori supporters with arms wide open. Meanwhile, Te Pāti Māori will spend the next 12 months desperately trying to salvage its image as it heads into an election year. Regardless, it seems likely Labour will be doing all it can to avoid having to include Te Pāti Māori in any left bloc government. So much for getting the waka back on course.
