Meka Whaitiri: former Labour MP on Toitū Te Tiriti cutting ties with Te Pāti Māori

Questions have been raised over ructions within Te Pāti Māori.

Toitū Te Tiriti - which led the large hikoi on Parliament last year - officially cut ties with the party today. 

Leader Eru Kapa-Kingi is the son of one of the party's MPs, and he claims the party follows a 'dictatorship model'.

Former Labour MP Meka Whaitiri ran for Te Pāti Māori in the last election.

She says this news is disappointing. 

"There's a lot of dynamics at play - there's some family ties there, you've got relationships, you've got kaupapa, you've got new movements. We can just purely speculate."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now there seems to be quite a spat within the
Maori Party. The leader of the Treaty Bill protest Eruk Kapakini,
has cut ties with the Marti Party. He's also the
son of one of the Maori Party's MP's who was
recently stripped of her role as whip. Former Labour MP
Mecha fights that he ran for the Maori Party last election.
Himecher do you order hear that? Do you think that
if we look at this, we look at the fact
that his mum was stripped of the party's chief whip role,

(00:23):
the fact that you've had Takuza Ferris, you know, doubling down,
tripling down on his position, refusing to remove videos. Does
it look to you like there's something going on here?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, there's something something in the water down there, that's
for sure. Hither, I don't know quite because obviously, as
you know, I've been away from the party for every
year now and since these dynamic MPs have entered Parliament,
it's really been an area that I haven't had.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Much to do with him basically, but supporting from afar.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Yeah, what do you think is the worst case scenario here?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
So there's a lot of dynamics that play as you No, Heather,
I mean, you've just sense said it yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
There's some family ties there.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
There's also the dynamics of any political party is here
gearing up for next year's general election. You've got relationships,
you've got copappa, you've got new movements. So you know,
without either you or I've been in the thick of things,
you know, we can just purely speculate. It's unfortunate because
I have such a lot of respect for Edu what

(01:26):
he's done. I have a huge respect for his mother,
and I have a huge respect to those colleagues in
the Marti Party.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's not an easy time.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
One of Edu's complaints is that the decision seemed to
come from John Tomerhera, the co leaders, and Rahwadi White
is his wife, who's obviously John Tomerhera's daughter. That's pretty
much how a party runs though, from the top down,
doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh, look, everyone has it's like my own campaign, the
whole whole family involved in it, because who else is
going to back you up but your own. So it
doesn't surprise me with the names that you have mentioned,
because they were all there when I crossed the floor.
And they were very welcoming to me, and I've got
no complaints on either the one.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
But they are also the ones running the show right
in any party that is any good at the way
that we run politics is generally run from the center.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
One.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
It happened in Labor, with your president, with your with
your party leaders. You're in a circle. You're sort of
capting it or your kitchen table lot. So you learn
it very fast. As an MP of an electorate, particularly
a Madi electriate, or you need it or you must
do is represent those that put their faith in you

(02:39):
to go to Parliament and do better for them.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
And I know that each of those Marti MPs with
Spartan Maori do that on the daily Mecca. Thanks very much.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I really appreciate having a chat to you about there's
mega fight today. Former Labor MP and also former Maori
Party candidate Chris Hopkins has been asked about this.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
Before the next election, we'll set out which parties we
can and can't work with them. We'll do that closer
to the I think to party Mary have got some
internal issues of their own to work through before we
could have that conversation with them. They look like they're
quite a long way away from being ready to play
a constructive role in any future government.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
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