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“Te Pāti Māori’s Descent” - 25 November 2025

The Mata Interview Exposes a Party at War with Its Own Kaupapa

Ivor Jones The Māori Green Ltn

25 Nov 2025 — 15 min read

The interview that Tākuta Ferris gave to RNZ’s Mata programme is nothing less than an autopsy performed while the patient still breathes. For over an hour, the expelled Te Tai Tonga MP laid bare the internal rot of a party whose kaupapa—Māori advancement—has been subordinated to the personal vendettas and power consolidation of an unelected president and compliant leadership.

What emerges is not a story of political disagreement but of structural betrayal: a dying MP pushed out while plugged into a dialysis machine; her body taken to a marae her parents didn’t choose, announced via radio while they drove to collect their daughter; a ceasefire hui that ended with threats of utu against a family; and a pattern of silencing wāhine that Ferris identifies across four successive victims.

The Anatomy of the Ceasefire That Never Was

Ferris pinpoints the decisive moment as 9 October 2025—a hui that was meant to resolve internal tensions but instead became the catalyst for expulsion.

According to Ferris, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi originally proposed a meeting of just the six MPs to

“walk through, talk through, resolve our issues.”

The invitation was accepted by co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi. Then, he says, the hui was

“intervened, coerced, jacked up”

—the six-person forum replaced by a facilitated meeting packed with executive members.

In attendance, according to Ferris:

president John Tamihere (JT);
the two co-leaders; facilitators Chay Wilson and Helen Lei;
vice-president Fallyn Flavell;
secretary Lance Norman;
Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate Haley Maxwell

—”I don’t know why they invited her, that was exposing someone completely not involved in the te to the fire”

—and the MPs themselves.

Three hours in, when Kiri Tamihere-Waititi—party general manager, daughter of Tamihere, and wife of Waititi—called for a ceasefire, everyone agreed as it went around the room. Until it reached Tamihere.

Ferris’s account is damning:

“Instead of agreeing to it, JT said amongst other things that ‘I will get utu for my daughter and I will get it from those Kapa-Kingi boys and their media company.’”

This allegation is corroborated by Kapa-Kingi’s own account to the NZ Herald, where she described Tamihere saying:

“I am coming for your boys and I will have utu.”

Ferris’s response was to walk out, saying “well, bugger this.”

The hui imploded.

The Family Business

To understand what is happening within Te Pāti Māori requires mapping the network of familial and institutional relationships that centre on John Tamihere.

John Tamihere: Party president; CEO of Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust; formerly CEO of Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency until the contract was not renewed in March 2025.
Rawiri Waititi: Party co-leader; MP for Waiariki; married to Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, Tamihere’s daughter.
Kiri Tamihere-Waititi: Party general manager; ex officio member of the National Executive; former shareholder of Toitū Te Tiriti Limited according to the Companies Register.
Lance Norman: Party secretary/treasurer; also Director of Health Reforms at Waipareira Trust.

Eru Kapa-Kingi, the hīkoi leader and former party vice-president, described this configuration as a

“dictatorship model” where decisions

“always came from party president John Tamihere, co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and Kiri Tamihere-Waititi.”

As Ferris put it:

“I don’t need JT. I’m clever enough to work out anything. If Debbie needs JT, can’t do it without him—that’s her setup. But I don’t believe young Māori of my generation needs someone to come and do that for us.”

Takutai Tarsh Kemp: The Full Story

The late Takutai Tarsh Kemp, Tāmaki Makaurau MP, died on 26 June 2025, aged 50, following kidney disease that required dialysis. Ferris’s account of her treatment reveals a far darker picture than the public tributes suggested.

The Push to Remove Her

According to Ferris, the leadership attempted to force Kemp out of her seat while she was critically ill. In caucus, he says, the words were explicit:

“The view was that Takutai would be gone by March. Those are the exact words in a caucus meeting. Rawiri said that, but that would have come out of JT’s [mouth] because JT was happy to move Takutai out.”

Kemp fought back.

“The brilliant thing that Takutai did was she went and got all the support of her kaumātua in Tāmaki and blocked that attempt. JT would say ‘Oh bloody Takutai, she beat me.’ And Takutai said to us ‘Nah f*** JT, I’ll fight him.’”

Ferris describes the scene:

“There’s our two [in conflict], she’s plugged into a damn machine day in day out, and she instead of being supported is now having to deal with this.”

The Intervention That Never Happened

When co-leaders Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer were suspended from Parliament for 21 days in June 2025—punishment for their haka during the Treaty Principles Bill debate—the remaining MPs carried the workload.

Ferris describes what followed:

“Rawiri and Debbie didn’t have to not be at the House—they were only suspended from the chamber. They could have still come to the House and done the work. They opted to stay out.”

The four remaining MPs—Ferris, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Kemp, and Kapa-Kingi

—”began working in a manner that was easy, efficient, got stuff done.”

In that final week, they agreed an intervention was required to confront the leadership.

“We worked out how to do it after they came back. The tragic thing was that Takutai died that week.”

The Body and the Betrayal

What happened after Kemp’s death is, in Ferris’s words,

“some of the most despicable stuff I’ve encountered.”

“Fina Nāri [Kemp’s mother] has shared it openly with me and others. Her, Takutai’s mum, and Matt Karaka, her father, were driving to Auckland to pick their girl up and take her home. They heard on the radio that their girl was going to Hoani Waititi [Marae].”

The parents had wanted to

“go and pick their girl up and drive her straight back to Mokai Pātea. That was as grand as the event would have been, right—just how they wanted it.”

Instead, per Wikipedia, Kemp’s body was taken to Hoani Waititi Marae in West Auckland on 27 June before eventually travelling to Ōpaea Marae in Taihape for burial.

Ferris says the family

“have been left with a huge bill... things happening with their daughter that they’re not even included in.”

The family is now

“running the celebration night for Takutai to raise money to pay this bill.”

Te Waka Pakaru: A party adrift in stormy waters

The Pattern: Silencing Wāhine Māori

Ferris identifies a recurring behavioural pattern targeting wāhine in the party:

“It’s very clear to me that this behaviour of JT’s and the leadership is nothing new. They did this to my whanaunga Heather [Te Au-Skipworth] before the election—Heather wanted to stay, she was given no support, she was pushed out.”

Heather Te Au-Skipworth stepped down from Te Pāti Māori’s candidacy in June 2023 after being replaced by Meka Whaitiri in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. She cited “personal reasons” but later endorsed Labour’s candidate.

“Then they did it to Takutai—Takutai wanted to stay, she was given no support. There was an attempt to push her out; she outwitted them but then she passed away.”

“Then they did it to Meno [Kapa-Kingi]—they tried to push Meno out. Well, they purportedly have, but Meno is too strong and her iwi leadership is too strong behind her.”

“And now I see them actively doing it to Ori [Oriini Kaipara]. So that’s one, two, three, four wāhine Māori—same group of people, same exec, same JT, same all of them.”

The Empty Chair: Absence of leadership when it mattered most

Oriini Kaipara: The Latest Target

Oriini Kaipara won the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election in September 2025 with 64% of the vote. According to Ferris, she was guaranteed by leadership that if she won,

“she could bring with her her team to serve as an exec, as support for her in Tāmaki.”

“We’ve all been in meetings where they’ve agreed that is going to happen. And we’ve been caught in this tussle wherein Ori is trying to get herself established and operating effectively, and she’s literally being controlled.”

He continues:

“They just continue to sideline her. In my view, they’re bullying her. In my view, they’re standing over her, and she is under immense pressure, immense duress, to the point where I believe it’s dangerous.”

The allegations intensify:

“They’ve said things to her like ‘Oh you don’t deserve it’ and ‘You’re entitled and you’re this and you’re that.’ They’re actually beginning to undermine her credibility as an MP. They’re doing that just to retain the voting power of Tāmaki.”

Kaipara has not publicly confirmed these allegations, though she did publicly support Kapa-Kingi before the expulsions. After the expulsion, she met privately with the ousted MPs.

The Reset That Reset Nothing

The party’s 8 October “reset”—announced on the same day as Kaipara’s maiden speech—exemplified the pattern.

Ferris describes what transpired:

“That reset hui was staged on her day, in her hui, with her whole whānau sitting there probably wondering ‘what the hell is this.’ I remember Rawiri and Debbie there speaking; me, Hana, and Meno are here thinking ‘oh what’s this?’—and Ori was standing over there just sort of out on the side.”

“So we sat there and listened to the reset speech, and then they closed that hui and all left, and Ori is still standing over there. And her whānau would later say to her ‘what the hell was that?’”

A day meant for celebrating their newest MP became another exercise in leadership self-promotion.

The Financial Allegations That Collapsed

Much of the justification for Kapa-Kingi’s suspension rested on allegations she had overspent her parliamentary budget by up to $133,000.

Ferris’s assessment is unsparing:

“The Speaker of the House came out and said ‘no issue there, no budgetary issue there.’ In the technicalities of Parliament, that’s called a Speaker’s ruling—you are not allowed to go against a Speaker’s ruling.”

“And yet like two weeks after that, out come the allegations of all the overspending and the paying your son and this and that.”

According to Centrist’s reporting, Parliamentary Service confirmed Kapa-Kingi had actually underspent her budget.

Ferris adds:

“We’re now in November, all the budgets roll over in November, so we’re now in reconciliation time, and I can guarantee you that Meno’s budget was not overspent.”

The Constitutional Crisis

The expulsions of Kapa-Kingi and Ferris on 9 November 2025 raise fundamental questions about party governance.

Ferris notes the National Council—supposedly the party’s supreme body—has

“never had a full meeting. Not even till now. The fullest meeting of the National Council was the one that was held to suspend Mariameno, and Te Tai Tokerau were excluded. So that’s not a full meeting of the National Council either.”

The appeal process is equally compromised. When 50% of the caucus—Ferris, Kapa-Kingi, and Kaipara—requested an audience with the National Council to

“tell our side of the story,” they were “completely ignored.”

“If that didn’t communicate enough to me... you know, there aren’t a whole lot of options left.”

What Ferris Demands

There is only one path to reconciliation, according to Ferris:

“One unequivocal move that must occur is JT must step down. There is really no other way around any form of reconciliation if JT is still there.”

On the question of who should lead Māori politics into 2026, Ferris is explicit:

“If you were to ask me, is JT the right guy to lead [capturing the rangatahi vote]? No—not the right guy. The right guy looks and sounds like an Eru Kapa-Kingi, who can capture that cohort of our people and move them through... show up, represent yourself well.”

He rejects Ngarewa-Packer’s characterisation of Tamihere as the man to take Māori to

“Hawaiki Hou”: “I don’t need JT. I’m clever enough to work out anything.”

The Iwi Response

The National Iwi Chairs Forum attempted mediation in November 2025, with Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber meeting separately with the co-leaders and the expelled MPs.

Notably, Tamihere was absent from formal meetings—Barber confirmed the Forum had

“a number of conversations with him on the phone” but he did not attend in person.

When Ngāpuhi called a hui at Kaikohe, the leadership refused to attend. Te Rūnanga-ā-iwi o Ngāpuhi’s Moana Tuwhare said the iwi was “insulted”: “It’s hard to reconcile the fact that they’re called Te Pāti Māori but are refusing to turn up to hui Māori.”

Cui Bono? Cui Malo?

Who benefits:

John Tamihere: Maintains control without electoral accountability; continues overlapping leadership roles across party, Waipareira Trust, and related entities
The coalition government: Its most effective Māori opposition destroys itself from within
Those invested in Māori political disunity: Division serves those who profit from a weakened Māori voice

Who suffers:

The whānau of Takutai Tarsh Kemp: Denied their choice of how to farewell their daughter; left with bills from a tangihanga they did not design
Oriini Kaipara: Promised support she has not received; allegedly undermined in her own electorate
Te Pāti Māori staff: Described by Ferris as “completely burnt out, time and time and time again, because of underperforming leaders”
Every Māori voter who believed this party would prioritise rangatiratanga over ego
Tangata Tiriti who joined the movement in good faith

The Fallacies Exposed

Appeal to authority: The party’s response to criticism invokes Tamihere’s experience and track record. But authority without accountability is authoritarianism.

False equivalence: Legitimate criticism of leadership behaviour is framed as an attack on Māori identity. It is not.

Ad hominem: Ferris and Kapa-Kingi are labelled “rogue MPs” and “coup plotters” rather than their substantive allegations being addressed.

Circular reasoning: The National Council is directed by the National Executive, when constitutionally it should be the reverse. Those who point this out are expelled by the very body that has usurped power.

Te Ara Whakamua: The path forward remains for those who choose it

The Message to Māori

Ferris ends his Mata interview with a carving metaphor:

“There’s a great whakataukī that says tarai kia rite ki te tangata—which basically means to just shed all of the wood that’s not required and it leaves you with the thing you’re after.”

His message to angry, sad Māori voters is simple:

“Kia kaha, kia mau. We’re in a tough time. I didn’t get into politics for this. I got into politics for my kids.”

The question now is whether the people who built Te Pāti Māori will reclaim it—or watch it burn.

Ivor Jones The Maori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

Research conducted 25 November 2025. Tools used: search_web, get_url_content. Primary source: RNZ Mata interview transcript provided by user. Additional sources: RNZ, 1News, NZ Herald, Te Ao Māori News, Waatea News, The Spinoff, Centrist, E-Tangata, Wikipedia, official party and organisational websites, Electoral Commission.

Unverified allegations from the Mata interview have been attributed to their source. Claims requiring verification—including the specific words spoken at the 9 October hui, the circumstances of Kemp’s body being taken to Hoani Waititi Marae, and ongoing financial matters—are presented as allegations made by named individuals.

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