Ethan Griffiths: Newstalk ZB political reporter on the internal conflicts impacting Te Pāti Māori

The past few weeks have been chaotic for Te Pāti Māori following Takuta Ferris’ social media posts and the decision to remove Mariameno Kapa-Kingi as party whip.

These events have raised concerns about instability within the party and there's plans to announce a reset in the coming days.

Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths says it's unclear what this reset will look like, or how the Labour Party will respond.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right Times Talk, Local Politics Now and News Talks. HEB
Political reporter Ethan Griffs is with me now.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, Ethan, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's okay. So more signs this week that not all
as well within t Pati Marti do we do? We
know what's going on?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, I mean they're not in good shape, are they?
This week? Toy two to Tidity cut ties with the party. Now,
this is an organization that was behind the Mammoth Hikoy
to Parliament last year. Some people claim it's the biggest
march on Parliament ever. Now the group was led by
Edu Kappakni. He's come out and claimed the party has
a dictatorship model of leadership and is also ego driven.

(00:51):
Now he's just not a nobody talking here. He's the
former vice president of the party, also the son of
one of its MP's, Madia Meno Kappakini. Now, Maria Meno
was sacked as party whip about three weeks ago. We
haven't had an explanation why. Ed who says the group
leaving is not because of what happened to his mum.
But I mean there's there's something clearly afoot here. This

(01:14):
is a significant falling out. You've got toytoo t tendity
leaving Takata feris tripling down on his highly questionable, some
might say racist posts Maddy a Meno being sacked as
were You know, that's that's a lot for a party
that has just six MP's.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Did you have a very good point that where he
said we should actually be separating out our activists to
those who are working to those who are politicians working
within the parliamentary system.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean that that makes sense
to an extent. I mean, of course New Zealand's political
system is a long history of activists being involved, but
it doesn't always end well and you've sort of got
competing priorities there. But coming out of this, I mean
there's two really big questions right. The first is what
happens next Now parliament's back next week, of course, or

(02:05):
any kaiperer who had the the mammoth win in Tammicky Mikoto,
she's going to be sworn in. All the attention is
going to be off her and on what's going on
in the party. And then they claim they're announcing a
reset at Parliament on Thursday after Kyperer's made in speech.
What that looks like. We've got no idea, but it's
certainly going to be something to watch. And then the

(02:26):
next question, of course, is how Labor responds on current
poland they need the Marty Party. What's the party going
to look like in a year's time? Are they ready
for government? Chris Hopkins says no, but he might have
no choice.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
As you mentioned, the House is returning for a three
week sitting block after spending two weeks in recess. Is
there anything else exciting on the cards?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah? Yeah, we're getting back into the business end of
the year now back for three weeks sitting block after
a two week recess. That was the last two week
recess of the year, so things will start to get
quite busy. Of course, expect that big focus on to
Party Marty as already Kiper has sworn in. The Greens
also have a new MP, Robinson, who comes in to

(03:07):
replace Benjamin Doyle. He'll be sworn in this week too,
and Winston Peters will be facing the press pack for
the first time since he arrived back from the un
in New York, so expect some questions on Palestinian statehood,
especially now that peace could be on the horizon. As
we've learned in the last twenty four.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Hours, really quickly we had the energy reforms, and in
the lead up to the energy reform announcement, Shane Jones
was talking around all sorts of ideas like the renationalization
of the gen Taylors and some other more reasonable ideas.
We got the energy announcement didn't turn out to be
very exciting, but the Energy Minister called his ideas bumper

(03:46):
stick of politics and he's gone quiet. What's going on there?

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah? Yeah, this is really unusual. As I'm sure most
people know, Shane Jones is one of those MP's that
always has lots to say, so for him to be
saying nothing is quite interesting. Now, as you say, he's
gone to ground. Now, the Energy Minister made those comments,
I think, referring to the ideas generally, perhaps without recognition

(04:10):
of course, that his associate minister, essentially his deputy, had
been advocating for those changes himself. Now, whether Shane Jones
is supportive of these changes remains to be seen. You'd
have to think probably not. But next week he'll be
back at Parliament and we'll finally have the chance to
ask some questions of him, and hopefully he'll have something

(04:31):
to say.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Ethan lovely to chat to you. Thank you so much
for your time this morning, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks the'd Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.