A leading iwi leader says there’s a “sliver of hope” to help Te Pāti Māori’s caucus reconcile, but that the window of opportunity was closing quickly, especially after the party’s leadership moved to expel two “rogue” MPs.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chairperson Bayden Barber told Q+A that party leadership threw a spanner into the works of discussions when it expelled Takuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi earlier this week.
“The decision from the Maori Party National Council has basically ignored the aspiration of the iwi chairs to try and find a way forward together,” Barber told Q+A.
Barber and other iwi leaders travelled to Parliament to meet with different caucus factions and had scheduled a face-to-face hui for the Wednesday before the announcement of the two MPs’ expulsion on Monday.
“There’s 88 iwi and settlement groups within the Iwi Chairs Forum,” he said.
Fallout continues to spread after the party expelled two dissident MPs (Source: 1News)
“We represent hundreds of thousands of whanau from around the motu – the north, the south, the east, the west and the middle.
“For the council to jump the gun and make that decision, I think was definitely premature. Not really in the wairua of reconciliation. Probably the opposite, actually.
“But it’s still not too late to try and find a way, because at the end of the day, we would hate for us to go into Christmas and beyond having a split party, having two factions, which we have now, or even potentially another party coming into play.”
Kaupapa sidelined
Barber said the infighting has distracted Te Pati Māori from its core purpose at a critical time, with significant legislation affecting Māori passing through Parliament.
“We want Te Pāti Māori to be focused on these issues, and they have. They’ve been fighting the fight for the past few years,” he said. “[But] at the moment, we’re dealing with this huge distraction, in-fighting over social media.”
Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the decision was driven by what the party believed to be breaches of its constitution. (Source: 1News)
He added: “It’s a plea to Te Pāti Māori to refocus, to look at the bigger picture, which is election 2026, and focus on the kaupapa that are really important to our people.
“That’s what we deal with every day as iwi chairs. We deal with the Marine and Coastal Area Act (MACA). Here at Kahungungu, we’ve got the second-largest coastline, so the MACA is really important to us.
“The Regulatory Standards Bill, and the takahi, the trample on te Tiriti o Waitangi, these are a huge kaupapa that impact all of our people. And so we need a kaupapa Māori Party, which is Te Pāti Māori, focusing on the big issues.”
With the 2026 election now just over a year away, he warned the window for reconciliation was rapidly closing.
“The problem is that it’s got to take time to work through those issues, and we don’t have a lot of that at the moment,” he said.
Barber said a divided party risked electoral disaster, quoting a whakataukī: “He totara wahi rua he kai na te ahi. A split canoe is only good for one thing, putting it on the fire.”
Despite the setback, iwi leaders haven’t abandoned hope of bringing the factions together. “We still think there’s a sliver of hope going forward,” Barber said.
“But like I say, the opportunity is starting to close up in front of us with some of the decisions that have been made.”
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
