Graeme Edgler: Legal expert says Kapa Kingi's reinstatement is likely temporary

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi’s membership of Te Pāti Māori has been reinstated after she took her expulsion from the party to court.

Although, the decision is an interim measure ahead of a substantive hearing on February 2, where legal expert Graeme Edgler believes her reinstatement will be reversed. 

Edgler told Heather du Plessis-Allan, "ultimately, if Te Pāti Māori wants to get rid of this person from their party, they'll probably be able to do it, and the courts will probably let them."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
The High Court has ruled that Maori Party MP Maria
men Or Kapa king Ei, the one who was ousted,
must now be reinstated as a member of the Maori Party.
This means you'll be able to attend this weekend's AGM,
where big decisions are expected to be made. Graham Edgeler
is a constitutional law expert and with us now, hi Graham,
Hello Jesus. Is unusual, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
A little? Certainly courts have been involved in political party
disputes before, and it's not unusual for courts to sort of, well,
you know, well we're adding a two or three months
while we sought this thing up. Let's preserve the party's positions.
And that's kind of what they've done here. Doesn't always happen,
but it's not unknown.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Can you think of another occasion where where a court
has said an MP must be returned to the party.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Not to quite this extent, we've certainly had courts say
that parties can't do certain things like take final steps
to expel someone or you know, to get someone kicked
out of parliament. Often they might side with the party
at the end, but you remember the Donna Awa teddi
Khua thing that had an interim order in place, where
it's okay, don't do anything, but now don't do anything

(01:05):
in our while we argue about this in courtant that's
sort of the position we're here. Ultimately, if the party
Mary wants to get rid of this person from their party,
they'll probably be able to do it, and the courts
will probably let them, but it might insist on them
going through certain processes and making sure that fairness and
accuracy and and certain things like that. And so in
the interim they're saying, let's leave things the way they work.

(01:25):
You're still a member of the party. You can go
to the meeting, and you know, we can have a
bigger argument, the fuller argument in February next year.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Okay. Now, the argument, as you say, is set down
for February and the court, So are they able to
if they really want to re kick her out between
now in February.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Probably not, but they could certainly take the decision that
decisions that they might need to take so that when
we get to February things can happen very quickly. So
the court has said this person is a member of
your party, and there's a court order, and so they
try and take steps, but sort of the earlier steps,
not the finalize you've finally kicked out, but some of

(02:05):
the earlier processes, you know, including you the HUI this weekend,
you know, those can go along and have the discussions
that might need to be had, but the ultimate decision
who you know, this person stays a member, this person
might be kicked out, will probably not be able to
happen before February now or a judgment after February.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Graham, I don't know how much you know about the
politics of the situation, So tell me if you don't.
But why does she want to be back in the party?
What is the what is the relevance of this? Is
this in order to be able to influence a decision
this weekend at the AGM about maybe kicking John talmahead out?
I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
That seems not to be the case. And so one
of the things that is part of the part of
the process in court was she sought for orders, you know,
four different orders stopping John Tummerheae being being the pretty president,
stopping her being kicked out under the under the Electoral
Integrity Act waki jum law, and a couple of others

(03:02):
to judge only made one because in this particular case,
Party Marti said, we'll promise those two other ones and
this fourth one doesn't need to be happening. So Party
Mary said, we're not going to kick you out under
the walker jumping. And at this meeting that's coming up on Sunday,
we're only going to discuss the things that you that
are in the in the agenda. So here are the

(03:22):
motions that are going to be coming up this weekend.
We promise you those are the only ones, all right,
and so you know if you will certainly be able
to take part, and that my guess would be that
is part of the reason this this has happened, because
you know, sort of under the party's constitution, you know,
those sorts of things are supposed to happen. Because this
isn't just the MP, it's also her Electric Committee who
feel they've been sort of left out of the process
as well, and they have certain rights that they need

(03:44):
to protect. And so yes, yeah, I suspect that the
major reason here.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Graham, thank you so much. Appreciate it, mate, Graham Age
the constitutional law expert.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
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