Giles
Dexter, Political Reporter
A former
co-leader of Te Pāti Māori has expressed his sadness and
disappointment at the expulsion of two of its MPs.
Te
Pāti Māori’s National Council has decided to expel
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris, a decision both
MPs said was “unconstitutional”.
The MPs have vowed to
challenge the decision, which one electoral law expert said
would hinge on whether the party appropriately followed its
constitution, particularly its dispute resolution
processes.
Representatives from Kapa-Kingi’s
electorate Te Tai Tokerau were excluded
from voting, following a resolution to ‘reset’ the
electorate executive last month.
The electorate
executive in Te Tai Tonga, Ferris’ electorate, abstained.
Ferris’ social media post claimed the Hauraki-Waikato
electorate also abstained.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said that still meant the decision was
“without opposition”.
Former co-leader Te Ururoa
Flavell said three electorates out of six voting for
expulsion was “not consensus”, and he was saddened and
disappointed by the outcome.
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“There was an element of
hope, that the parties would come together and work things
out, especially since our constitution talks about
decision-making being by consensus, where you work away and
try to get to middle ground.”
Flavell said members
would expect to see “both sides of the story” first, and for
the party to follow a “fair, open, and transparent”
process.
“It must have been building for some time.
And the downside is it’s so complicated, involving issues of
leadership, issues of who said this and who said that,
issues of who did this and who did that,” he
said.
“And we haven’t necessarily got both sides of
the story on the table, and the whole issue investigated to
at least determine ‘OK, what have we got here?’ The rhetoric
has very much been from one side of the story, and that’s
disappointing because you sort of think in the spirit of a
fair process and transparency, that all parties get a shot
to put their case. That should have, could have, happened at
the AGM.”
Flavell said at a time when Māori were
facing big issues and looking for someone to challenge and
offer alternatives to what the government was doing, the
battle had “overshadowed” things, and the negative reaction
made him worry about the next election.
“Everything
I’ve seen or heard, either social media or personally to
myself, has been really negative about what’s going on. And
people just want to say come on, come together, show some
example, work together, and let’s focus on the big issues
that our people face right now.”
Ngāti Kahungunu
chair Bayden Barber, who as representative of the National
Iwi Chairs Forum had sought to get both factions to a hui
this week, said Te Pāti Māori was entitled to go down the
path it did under its constitution, but maintained there was
still merit in meeting face-to-face.
“What we’ve been
hoping and trying to broker between the groups is that hui
under our tikanga, on our marae, would be the ideal. It’s
not the solution, but it’s a pathway towards reconciliation.
So yeah, so this has put a different slant on the context,
totally,” he told Midday Report.
What does the
party’s constitution say?
Ferris and Kapa-Kingi have
rejected the decision, with both saying it was
“unconstitutional”.
Kapa-Kingi has vowed to appeal the
decision “in all respects,” while according to The Post
Ferris was engaging legal counsel.
While the
co-leaders said the resolution took effect on Monday, Te
Pāti Māori’s consitution allowed a member whose membership
has been cancelled to appeal the decision at the next
national hui.
That hui is set down for 7
December.
University of Otago law professor Andrew
Geddis said such an appeal would hinge on whether the party
appropriately followed its constitution in expelling the
MPs.
The constitution contains a section on dispute
resolution, as well as a clause to cancel membership if the
council believed that member had ceased to accept or abide
by the constitution.
Geddis said a challenge could
come if the MPs did not believe the disputes resolution
process was properly used.
“They’ll be saying, well,
if you had a dispute with us or thought we were acting
improperly, you should have used the disputes resolution
process to bring the dispute in front of our electorate
committee, and then take it further if need be, and so on,
rather than jumping straight to I guess you would call the
nuclear option, just kicking us out with no process at all,
using this general power to remove membership,” Geddis
said.
The co-leaders have not publicly said what the
breaches
of the constitution were that merited Kapa-Kingi or
Ferris’ expulsions, only that the constitution had standards
of duty, budgetary responsibility, and behaviour, and that
the breaches were “serious”.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader
Rawiri Waititi had “absolute confidence” the party had
followed its constitution, and insisted every attempt was
made to resolve the disputes before the National Council
turned to expulsion.
“We have had many a conversation
one-on-one, two-on-one, group MP huihuis, we have had
interventions, we have had many, many hui to try and get to
the bottom of this, and we have come short of a resolution
and we have tried our best,” he said.
“When tikanga
hasn’t been able to do that, then we turn to the
kawa.”
Waiariki missed out?
Questions have
also been raised about consultation in the lead up to the
National Council hui.
RNZ has seen emails sent to Te
Pāti Māori Waiariki electorate members on Wednesday 5
November, alerting them to a meeting on the afternoon of
Sunday 9 November, ahead of the National Council that
evening.
“In preparation for this National Council
hui, we are wanting to meet with our Waiariki electorate to
hui in person,” it read.
“We understand the short
notice and apologise.
“We hope to see you
there.”
Another email seen by RNZ stated it was
cancelled because Rawiri Waititi was “unavailable” to
attend.
On Friday 7 November, a follow-up notice was
sent out cancelling the Sunday afternoon meeting.
“It
has been great to have been able to connect with some of our
branches this week!” it read, before stating the scheduled
in-person hui was cancelled.
“We apologise for any
invonvenience in cancelling this hui.”
On Monday
morning, an email went out ahead of the 10am announcement,
detailing the decision to remove Ferris and Kapa-Kingi from
the party.
“Last night the National Council
unanimously decided that Takuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa
Kingi were in breach of the Constitution and therefore
decided that the appropriate action is the immediate removal
of their memberships from Te Pāti Māori.”
It
mentioned meeting with all Waiariki branches, despite the
in-person hui being cancelled.
“After meeting with all
of the Waiariki branches, we wanted to thank you all for the
courageous conversations and the unanimous decision to
enable our Waiariki Executive to represent Waiariki at the
National Council hui held on Sunday, 9th of
November.”
RNZ understands members are frustrated at
missing out on an opportunity to discuss the
decisions.
A Te Pāti Māori spokesperson told RNZ all
electorate matters were managed by their respective
electorate executives.
“In Waiariki, all branches were
consulted prior to the National Council hui.
“The
proposed in-person hui was cancelled once branches confirmed
they would not be attending, as their positions were already
clear and formally communicated.
Will the MPs be
waka-jumped out?
The next step is for Te Pāti Māori
to inform
the Speaker that Kapa-Kingi and Ferris are no longer Te
Pāti Māori MPs.
The Speaker then tells the House
that the MPs are now regarded as independent
members.
That then gives the party an opportunity to
use the party-hopping, or waka-jumping, legislation to
remove them from Parliament entirely.
That would
require the party leaders writing to the Speaker of their
belief the MPs were disrupting the proportionality of
Parliament.
The legislation requires a party to use
all of its internal processes first, with Te Pāti Māori’s
constitution allowing for an appeal at the national
hui.
Rawiri Waititi said using the legislation had not
been a consideration at this stage, and any consideration
would be for the National Council.
Since the law was
re-introduced in 2018, it has been used once, with the Green
Party deciding to expel Darleen Tana in 2024.
Geddis
said the Greens had used a process that went above and
beyond their own constitution in ousting Tana.
“The
Greens actually gave Darleen Tana more natural justice, more
of a chance to be heard than the constitution actually
required of them. In this case, Te Pāti Māori seems to
have used the quickest, neatest, cleanest way to get rid of
these MPs.”
In Tana’s case, she had already resigned
from the party, while Kapa-Kingi and Ferris have been
expelled strongly indicating they want to remain in Te Pāti
Māori.
“Here, you’ve got a party that has kicked MPs
out, and it’s the party’s action that is going to distort
Parliament’s proportionality. And so one of the questions is
going to be can you use the party-hopping law against an MP
that you have kicked out, thereby distorting
proportionality, or do you have to point to something that
that MP did that caused you to kick them out and therefore
cause the action?” Geddis said.
Who will Labour work
with?
Rawiri Waititi said Te Pāti Māori had begun
“serious and constructive” conversations with Labour and the
Greens.
But Labour leader Chris Hipkins denied that
was the case, saying there had been no meetings since
September’s Tāmaki Makaurau by-election.
While there
had been the occasional chat from time to time, including a
courtesy call about the expulsion, Hipkins said there had
been nothing on any future partnership or any governing
arrangement, and re-iterated his stance that Te Pāti Māori
needed to sort through its internal issues first.
“I’d
like to see Te Pāti Māori, focused on representing the
people who voted for them, showing up in Parliament,
constructively participating in debates, coming up with some
new ideas. I think those are all things that are
opportunities available to them.”
Hipkins indicated he
would not meet with Kapa-Kingi or Ferris either, especially
if they were challenging the decision to expel them from the
party.
“That’s something I’m not getting involved in
in any way.”
The Prime Minister called Te Pāti Māori
a “joke” and also ruled out working with Kapa-Kingi or
Ferris.
“To me, it’s just a sheer soap opera. I don’t
want to work with them, I won’t be working with the
independents, I won’t be working with Te Pāti Māori, I’m
pretty clear about
that.”
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