Over the past 48 hours, the fractures have gone from rumour to reality. Two key developments have confirmed that the whare of Te Pāti Māori is visibly crumbling. These developments being Toitū Te Tiriti’s public split from Te Pāti Māori and open dissent coming from within the party’s own caucus.
Toitū Te Tiriti has been an ally of Te Pāti Māori since it was formed by Te Pāti Māori operatives, but now it has officially cut ties with the party. In a statement reported by Te Ao News, spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi cited leadership failings, an “ego-driven narrative,” and the erosion of constitutional accountability as reasons for walking away. He accused the party of operating under a “dictatorship model,” of failing to hold AGMs or convene its national council as required, and of centralising power in a way that betrays its grassroots kaupapa. This is not the language of a friendly parting. It is a declaration of no confidence in Te Pāti Māori’s current leadership and direction.
Mariameno and Eru Kapa-Kingi
The breakaway came on the same day 1News reported internal dissent from within the caucus itself. Eru’s mother, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, the MP for Te Tai Tokerau, publicly criticised what she also described as “dysfunction” following her recent demotion from the party whip role. The position was quietly transferred to co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a move that caught some in the party off-guard. The elder Kapa-Kingi’s comments were restrained but pointed; a clear signal that something is very wrong inside Te Pāti Māori’s parliamentary wing. When MPs start using words like “dysfunction,” it’s rarely an isolated gripe. More likely a symptom of deeper discontent.
These ruptures suggest a systemic crisis. And one figure’s absence from the public stage makes it even more glaring. Co-leader Rawiri Waititi has effectively vanished from view. The last time he appeared on Te Pāti Māori’s social media (Instagram and Facebook) alongside co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on August 28, promoting then by-election candidate Orinii Kaipara. His last solo appearance was on July 22. Since then, all official communications and press releases have either been issued in Ngarewa-Packer’s name or under the party’s collective banner. For a co-leader who once embodied the party’s activist spirit and rhetorical fire, such silence is deafening. Whether he’s been sidelined, withdrawn voluntarily, or is simply no longer in control, the optics are terrible. A party built on the symbolism of dual leadership is now operating, effectively, as a one-woman show.
That brings us to one of the most intriguing and under-examined players in this unfolding drama: Kiri Tamihere-Waititi. She occupies two key positions: General Manager of Te Pāti Māori and sole shareholder of Toitū Te Tiriti, the very organisation that has just severed ties with the party. Her dual role places her squarely in the eye of the storm. According to Te Ao News, Tamihere-Waititi was unable to attend the meeting where Toitū’s leadership voted to disaffiliate, but her absence only adds to the mystery. If she controls the entity that has now walked away from Te Pāti Māori, where does that leave her loyalties? Is she a bridge between movement and party, a silent broker of power, or now caught between two warring factions?
Click to View - Kiri Tamihere-Waititi is also known as Christina Tamihere.
Of course, the fact that she is the daughter of the President of Te Pāti Māori John Tamihere and the wife of missing-in-action co-leader Rawiri Waititi only adds to the intrigue.
The contradictions are almost Shakespearean. On paper, the party’s general manager and the movement’s owner are one and the same and yet the movement has publicly rebuked the party. It raises serious questions about who is actually running what, and whose mandate Tamihere-Waititi is acting on. If Toitū’s move was genuinely grassroots, it represents a stunning rebuke of her own operational leadership. If it was strategic, it may signal an attempt to preserve credibility by separating kaupapa activism from a party mired in internal strife. Either way, it exposes a structural flaw. When power is so centralised that one person sits atop both the political and activist wings, any fracture reverberates through the whole edifice.
Kiri Tamihere-Waititi and husband Rawiri Waititi
What we are witnessing is the inevitable collision between movement vibes and party structure. Movements thrive on horizontality, collective accountability, and moral authority. Vibes. Parties, by contrast, demand message discipline, hierarchy, and brand management. Structure. For a while, Te Pāti Māori managed to straddle both worlds, projecting radical authenticity while operating within parliamentary constraints. That balancing act appears to have failed. The grassroots now accuse the party of failing to observe tikanga and surrendering to ego and control.
The consolidation of communications around Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s name hints at a deliberate re-branding strategy or a power grab. By pushing out press releases solely in her voice, the party may be trying to project order and unity amid the chaos, but what once looked like shared leadership now feels like a hollow title.
The danger for Te Pāti Māori is twofold. First, credibility. Radical Māori politics depends on authenticity; on being seen as of, by, and for, the people. When allies like Toitū Te Tiriti walk away citing breaches of kaupapa, that moral authority evaporates. Second, fragmentation. Disillusioned activists and members may splinter off into new formations or re-energise non-parliamentary movements. In trying to control the narrative, Te Pāti Māori risks losing the movement energy that made it powerful.
What happens next will determine whether this is a temporary crisis or a full implosion. We may see resignations, formal complaints over constitutional breaches, or even the birth of a rival Māori political entity. That certainly is a possibility that can be read between the lines of Eru Kapa-Kingi’s comments. We may also see a hardening of control, a purge of dissent, a tightening of the brand, a further withdrawal of transparency. In all of it, Kiri Tamihere-Waititi will be worth watching closely. Her next moves could reveal whether this rupture was accidental, strategic, or inevitable.
One thing is clear: this is no longer just gossip. The project of radical Māori politics, the politics of tino rangatiratanga, decolonisation, and mana motuhake, relies on cohesion, a popular mandate, and good vibes. When movements lose faith in a party that claims to speak for them, the whole edifice begins to collapse.
Ani O'Brien comes from a digital marketing background, she has been heavily involved in women's rights advocacy and is a founding council member of the Free Speech Union. This article was originally published on Ani's Substack Site and is published here with kind permission.
17 comments:
Not sure about Shakespearean - more like Pythonesque. So who in this particular debacle is the Judean People's Front, and who's the People's Front of Judea?
They might all appear as tattooed clowns but, despite apparent discordance, they still have a vision of the rest of us (non-micro maori) as clowns in their circus, and them operating as ringmaster. Don't feel too complacent about fractures within; they are underhand and devious and unfortunately have much more influence than is good for this country and its settled future.
Ani — this piece is a masterclass in political narrative.
You’ve taken what could have been a dry parade of press releases and turned it into a real-time drama: Te Pāti Māori imploding from within. Your ability to spot structural contradictions, anticipate fallout, and highlight the personalities at play — from Kiri Tamihere-Waititi’s dual roles to Rawiri Waititi’s absence — is instinctive, informed, and entirely absent in mainstream coverage.
Contrast that with the Herald and wider NZ media. Stuff’s Glen McConnell’s reporting reads like a series of copy-and-paste statements dressed as news: flat, context-free, and devoid of analysis. Mani Dunlop largely followed the same formula, offering quotes without connecting them or interrogating their meaning. NZH Adam Pearce managed to squeeze in some Hipkins remarks, but even that was reactive — scrambling to catch up rather than shaping the story.
Why the failure? MSM is trapped by deadlines, reliance on single sources, and an overcautious editorial culture that rarely takes the time to investigate internal dynamics or anticipate consequences (particularly involving their sacred cows — Maori supremacy claims and the greens, Ardern, Hipkins, Jackson or Robertson ), nuance is often sacrificed for safety, speed, or ideological comfort.
Where they report stenographically, you read like intelligence from inside the room: forward-looking, sharp, and unafraid to point out contradictions and power struggles.
No mainstream outlet has attempted to map the fractures, explore the potential splintering of the party, or examine what this means for the broader Māori political movement.
Your piece doesn’t just report; it interprets, predicts, and challenges. In a media landscape dominated by surface-level reporting, this is the kind of journalism — or near-journalism — that actually matters.
Long may you write.
Ego driven?
Whose ego?
Between Eru and Rawiri it is a constant dick measuring competition.....Throw in Romaine and a little tribalised intersectionality and let the festival that is known as Riri begin.
What we'll end up with is one extreme racially disfunctional marxist party and one that is more extreme but still racially disfunctional marxist party.
This is what comes from tribalism and one of the reasons why over 500 chiefs signed an agreement with the British crown to bring the "dictators" amongst their loose collection under control.
They were unable of forming their own sovereign state, so this was the best option they were ever likely to get to end a long history of warfare, murder and slavery.
Seems to be a clash between the Kwame Krumah wannabes and the Papa Doc Duvalier types. Both delusions of grandeur . A few see themselves as Bush War types. But they have a common enemy: those who are not part-Maori.
Entitled nonproductive people are like parasitic wasps - they always end up eating their own.
So it’s no surprise that this lot are having a p!ssing contest over who is the biggest entitled loser.
Imagine how much good they could do for their own people if they spent half as much energy on getting economically and socially literate, instead of constantly shouting their ignorance into the abyss.
Probably started as a family tiff over who stole the kumaras in 1795. Thats how childish this lot is.
Now would be the ideal moment to abolish the part-Maori seats in Parliament. After all they are Temporary Seats are'nt they. And after all, again, the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform strongly recommended they be abolished when MMP was introduced because it was foreseen that part-Maori would be over-represented in Parliament. Time has shown tat the Royal Commission was correct and Bolger was wrong (again). And after all, again-again, it is a Racist Party by any definition. How can a democratic government not only allow Racism but promotes it as well. Where is the Indian Party, the Filipino Party, the Chinese Party, and even a White Party, perhaps etc ?
Maori (the real Maori of 1840) ceded sovereignty to the British Crown. There is no doubt about that, so why are we still discussing it and allowing pat-Maori to obfuscate by changing the meaing of words to that which suits them best ? In ceding sovereignty Maori accepted that the Law of New Zealand would be Westminster or based on the Laws of Westminster. So why are our arrogant judiciary talking in terms of Tikanaga ?
Why is the Coalition doing nothing to rid this country of the lies and deceit perpetrated by part-Maori for the last 50 years ?
Why is the Coalition not abolishing the Waitangi Tribunal (a Racist organisation), why is it not abolishing the part-Maori Racist seats, why has it not removed all traces of the Treaty of Waitangi from legislation so that Parliament can represent all 160 ethnicities that comprise New Zealand's population ?
Why is the Coalition sitting on its hands and doing so little ? Polls suggest that the above is not high on the list of things that worry the majority of the population. But we all know that Polls can be very inaccurate especially when those polled are too afraid to say what they really think for fear of retribution ?
We are all concerned that the Far Left Wing will win the next election, and if that happens you may as well bend over and put your head between your legs and kiss .... .... ....... !
Another good reason to oppose Maori wards. This is what you’ll get.
Yes - tribalism in action. Be very afraid!
Fred H: we ought to be getting rid of the race-based sports teams as well, i.e. the "maori" all blacks, et al.
Can we now go to one country, one people, one law and dispose of the whole pursuit of the tikanga fairy-tale now that the kaitiaki have just shown that the problem isn't colonisation, but they suffer the same foibles as every other culture that preceded them for tens of thousands of years?
Msm do not want to touch this because they are onside with all factions. If it was rift in a coalition member msm would be going ape with glee
Happy to join in with the chorus of praise for this article. Thank you Ani and well done. Just one small quibble though. When could the word credilbility ever be used in a discussion about TPM?
This travesty reminds me of the two factions making up the Irish Republican Army. The political arm, Sein Fein, technically not attached to it's operations arm, the clandestine IRA.
Only difference here is that the Maori version of their revolution is taking place in full sight and apparently legitimate.
Wonderful to watch these part-Māori half-casts self-destruct. Nothing but pathetic tribal behaviour.
Their demise cannot come soon enough.
Post a Comment