Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - The Māori political class is failing its people

On Monday, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi announced publicly she was leaving Te Pāti Māori to form the Te Tai Tokerau Party. The announcement was framed in the language of mana motuhake, regional self-determination, and wahine leadership. It was, she said, the approach she and her team decided was best for them.

Anglo Saxon: New Zealand's indigenous wealth transfer scam

Transcript:
“Radio New Zealand, is also a maori broadcaster in all but name and its granular source of funding.

 
Radio New Zealand is taxpayer funded, but separately from the funding dedicated to other Maori propaganda agencies.

We are in effect paying twice to hear about what a bunch of entitled thieving pricks we are.

The whole idea of Maui broadcasting has become a mission to transfer more taxpayer funds into the hands of Maoris.....”

Click to view  

David Farrar: A former TPM co-leader on TPM

Te Ururoa Flavell writes:

1. Māori Party in court with its MPs

2. Two former Māori Party candidate options have gone to Greens. There may be others.

David Farrar: Defiance from Waipareira gets rewarded by Charities Services!

The Herald reports:

A long-running investigation into West Auckland social services provider Waipareira Trust’s hundreds of thousands of dollars of political donations to the campaigns of its chief executive John Tamihere has concluded with the charity avoiding deregistration.

Incredible.

A further story reports:

David Farrar: Its very clear Tamihere is the true leader of Te Pāti Māori

The Post reports:

Indeed, she says in her sworn affidavit that Tamihere had been chairing the weekly caucus meetings of MPs in Parliament since September. And it was he who sent Kapa-Kingi an ‘ultimatum’ on her overspending that sent the simmering issue into overdrive.

To have the party president chair caucus instead of the leader or a co-leader is unprecedented. Chairing caucus is a major part of the role of the leader.

Bob Edlin: Socialist Equality Group can’t see a split in the Maori Party....

Socialist Equality Group can’t see a split in the Maori Party – at least, not a class split, nor a call for workers to unite against the wealthy elite

In The Post, you can read how Davey Salmon, KC, explained the political process that resulted in the Māori Party dumping two of its MPs – “to make a big omelette you have to crack a lot of eggs”.

Salmon was in the High Court yesterday acting for party president John Tamihere and the party’s “National Council”.

Matua Kahurangi: The shocking truth about John Tamihere and Waipareira Trust

John Tamihere has spent decades selling himself as a champion of the underdog, a tireless advocate for Māori and community empowerment. He parades on stage, dominates media debates, and paints himself as the voice of the marginalised. As Duncan Garner lays bare in his recent podcast, the reality is far uglier.

Ani O'Brien: Civil war in Te Pāti Māori as the Kapa-Kingis come out swinging

The revolution is eating itself. Te Pāti Māori, the so-called uncompromising voice of Māori sovereignty, is turning inward, and the implosion is happening in real time. The movement that lectured Parliament about tikanga and collective leadership can’t seem to practise either. The façade of unity has cracked and beneath it lies a mess of ego, dysfunction, and factions.

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.

John McLean: Peak Maori radicalism?

Has maximum Māori separatism been reached?

The 50th Rainbow-tongued Māori Language Week is over.

David Farrar: Tamihere backs Ferris

Stuff reports:

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere says MP Tākuta Ferris was, in essence, correct when he hit out at non-Māori supporting Labour’s Māori electorate campaign.

Tamihere said Ferris could have worded his comments better, but added that he generally agreed with what the MP had said. That is despite Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer telling the Labour and Green leaders that his comments didn’t reflect her party’s views.

David Farrar: Tamihere says NZ Govt is “worse than Nazi Germany”

Stuff reports:

Tamihere made the remark on Martyn Bradbury’s The Bradbury Group podcast this week. He said the Government had a “bully-boy mentality”, and said academics suggesting alternative economic opinions were “beat up”.

Pee Kay: You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry

“You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry” is an expression meaning that until something is gone you take it for granted and don’t appreciate what you have.

Water is the essence of life and in New Zealand we are fortunate to have an abundance of water. All living things on our planet need water to survive. In our modern society, water plays a vital role in things like comfort, hygiene, transport, science and even mythology.

Centrist: ‘Your caucacity never fails' - Tamihere fires race barb as Waipareira fights deregistration

The Waipareira Trust is taking the Department of Internal Affairs to court in a bid to stop its deregistration as a charity, following a years-long investigation into hundreds of thousands of dollars funnelled into John Tamihere’s political campaigns.

The trust’s spending on Tamihere’s failed 2019 Auckland mayoral bid and the 2020 Te Pāti Māori campaign, which he co-led, was later reclassified as a no-interest, related-party loan.

John McLean: High Time To Wield The Axe

Tribal threats to New Zealand’s democracy must get the chop, before it’s too late

There’s no such thing as pan-Māoridom. Never has been. Not before colonisation, and not now. “Māori” are a collection of separate tribes (iwi), which now number about 150. None of these tribes were or are democratic. The head of each iwi hierarchy is a paramount chief, the Ariki, typically an inherited status. At the bottom of each traditional Māori tribe were the slaves and baby girls.

So it should come as no surprise that many Māori leaders are no fans of democracy.

Mike Butler: State racism, dysfunction exposed

ACT leader David Seymour has done New Zealand a huge favour through his Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill – he has exposed the racial divide that has been created by successive governments.

The debate and referendum that Seymour courageously pushed for should have taken place decades ago, before former Justice Minister Geoffrey Palmer launched the treaty settlement never-ending story that has apparently not settled anything.

Ani O'Brien: Reports of the death of Whānau Ora are greatly exaggerated

If the sum total of one’s knowledge about Whānau Ora, the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA), and John Tamihere’s web of organisations was informed by the news reports this morning on government contracts, one would think that the Government had no reasons to put the contracts out to tender, no reason to have concerns about perceptions of integrity at existing agencies, and have given the contracts to a bunch of white blokes in suits.

Centrist: John Tamihere’s defence risks credibility of kaupapa Māori governance

The Waipareira Trust, under John Tamihere’s leadership, has faced allegations of financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and improper political involvement—including $385,000 in interest-free loans to fund Tamihere’s campaigns.

His response? Cry ‘racism’.

Journalist Liam Rātana writes:

Graham Adams: Tamihere’s woes

Te Pāti Māori goes silent after scandal

John Tamihere and Te Pāti Māori are in a world of pain

The government cutting Whānau Ora funding would be a crippling blow.

For the longest time, it has been impossible to make Te Pāti Māori MPs behave with dignity and respect as they have revelled in their status as the nation’s foremost “Say Bum to Mummy” party.

John McLean: The cock Roche and the Heron

The Public Service Commission has at last released its report on the abuse of New Zealanders’ personal information in connection with Auckland’s Manurewa Marae and the 2023 general election.

The Report has been long awaited and much delayed. It was finalized in early December 2024 (it’s dated 5 December) but Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche – who’d just love to “disappear” the whole assault on New Zealand democracy - didn’t make the Report public until almost three months later, on 18 February 2025.

JD: You Have to Feel Sorry for Tamihere

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

You have to feel sorry for John Tamihere, with his back to the wall and fighting for his life. Or at least for his multi-million-dollar lifestyle and the millions he controls through the Waipareira Trust and other entities.

And so he does what any of us would do: he plays every card he has in his hand as he pushes back against the Pākehā establishment that is so unfairly trying to ferret out the truth.