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Summarised by Centrist
Ngāpuhi chair Mane Tahere has withdrawn an offer to meet with Te Pāti Māori, warning the party is now on track to lose the Te Tai Tokerau Māori electorate unless there is a major turnaround before November’s election.
Tahere said a haka performed by Te Pāti Māori supporters during the Waitangi pōwhiri for politicians was the “last straw” for many Ngāpuhi voters.
The performance followed speeches by Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi and Eru Kapa-Kingi, son of former MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who was expelled from the party late last year after months of internal conflict.
During the pōwhiri, Waititi acknowledged Eru was standing up for his mother and said the issues had been raised in the appropriate forum of the marae ātea. However, after the haka, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi stood and shouted “hoki atu”, meaning “go back”.
Tahere described the haka as “the nail in the coffin” and said Te Pāti Māori had “misread the room”. He told the reporters: “Unless something drastic happens between now and November, unfortunately, they have lost [the] Te Tai Tokerau seat.”
The Te Tai Tokerau electorate stretches from the Far North to upper Auckland. Ngāpuhi has more than 185,000 registered members, making it the country’s largest iwi by affiliation.
Te Tai Tokerau is one of seven Māori electorates being contested in the November 7 general election. Te Pāti Māori swept six of the seven seats in 2023.
