Summarised by Centrist
Te Pāti Māori has expelled two of its own MPs after weeks of internal turmoil between the party’s elected representatives and its unelected leadership.
Co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the expulsion of Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris followed “serious breaches” of the party’s constitution and “irreconcilable differences.”
“The breaches are about the standards that we expect from our members. The standards of duty that we have according to our constitution…the standard of behaviour,” Ngarewa-Packer said.
Waititi added, “It had to come to an end.”
The pair were removed “without opposition” at a Sunday-night meeting of the party’s national council, which Kapa-Kingi’s Te Tai Tokerau electorate was excluded from, and Ferris’s Te Tai Tonga abstained.
Waititi told reporters the decision was “not taken lightly” but necessary to “bring stability back to the waka.”
Ngarewa-Packer said the episode had been “an unnecessary distraction at a dark time for our country.”
Neither co-leader would specify what rule had been broken.
Both ousted MPs denounced the move as unconstitutional. Ferris called the decision “plainly unconstitutional,” while Kapa-Kingi said she would “appeal it in all respects” and remain in Parliament as an independent.
Party president John Tamihere, who did not attend the vote, earlier accused the two MPs of plotting a leadership coup and acting out of “greed, avarice and entitlement.” He also cited concerns about electorate-office overspending by Kapa-Kingi and a no-confidence motion against him from Ferris’s electorate branch.
The national council’s meeting went ahead despite efforts by the Iwi Chairs Forum to mediate peace between the factions.
The party’s leaders declined to say whether they would invoke waka-jumping laws to remove the pair from Parliament.
Read more over at Stuff, The NZ Herald, and RNZ
