Evaluation: It was a fair smaller caucus assembly than normal, for Te Pāti Māori this Tuesday morning. Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke is in america; different MPs have taken go away to help the younger individuals of their electorates on the nationwide major faculties kapa haka competitors in Tauranga this week. They have been Zooming into the caucus assembly remotely.
And for their very own causes, Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and firebrand Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris weren’t there. No loss, says the celebration president. The 2 have been holding their very own pre-caucus conferences then turning up late anyway; it doesn’t sound like he misses them.
John Tamihere little question recognises the mutinous anger of the small celebration’s two renegade MPs. He was that firebrand, 25 years in the past. He was the renegade MP going into battle along with his celebration’s management, 20 years in the past. It was he who was ordered off on prolonged go away by his celebration chief, Helen Clark, after making dismissive public remarks about “front-bums”, gays, unions and the Holocaust.
Now he’s a celebration president; he’s seen by these two MPs and a few others within the celebration because the ageing autocrat clinging onto institutional energy.
The seemingly inexplicable conflict between the management and the 2 MPs and their supporters has come to such a head that the Nationwide Iwi Chairs Discussion board has referred to as a hui with the celebration this Tuesday afternoon, in a bid to fix divisions.
Tamihere says he’s not the bully within the celebration. But, very similar to Kapa-Kingi and Ferris, he appears to be relishing the possibility of a avenue brawl. After I first met him within the late Nineteen Nineties, he and Shane Jones have been the brash, charismatic younger city Māori executives taking up Sir Tipene O’Regan and the iwi leaders of the Waitangi Fisheries Fee, by any means essential.
That stoush culminated within the police raiding the properties and workplaces of Jones and others, in the hunt for allegedly leaked paperwork. It was a bitter row, greatest consigned to historical past, that dragged in bystanders and observers whether or not they favored it or not. I too was briefly referred to as to courtroom, accused of receiving a leaked courtroom doc – a matter instantly thrown out by the decide.
Speaking to Tamihere forward of caucus, he’s once more scathing of the iwi leaders’ intervention. “It’s the primary time that iwi leaders, ever within the 22 years of the celebration’s historical past, have proven any overt consideration to the celebration,” he tells me. “Even when Pita and Tari have been there, they typically noticed it as being a competitor or interfering of their direct relationship with the Crown.”
Tamihere wears his historical past of battle like a medal. Removed from apologising for any errors, then or now, he as a substitute casts all criticism as a part of a “white feeding frenzy”. However some may counter that these exterior Te Pāti Māori, whether or not they be Māori or Pākehā, are extra bemused than frenzied. Few fake to know how precisely the celebration’s inside strife has escalated up to now, so quick.
Curiously, for all Tamihere’s vibrant assaults on Kapa-Kingi and Ferris (he tells me they’ve tried to “sabotage” the celebration) he insists he doesn’t have an issue with them. Reasonably, he alleges, they appear to have an issue with him – and he says he doesn’t know what their drawback is.
“It’s simply turn out to be exhausting looking for out what the issue was. And for those who can’t outline an issue, you possibly can’t outline an answer. The one drawback I’ve is their issues, which I can’t get my head round.”
With out saying so in as many phrases, it appears Tamihere is about on the expulsion of the 2 MPs. He’s adamant their destiny shall be solid, nicely earlier than the celebration’s annual hui on December 7. “Politics is about numbers, Jonathan, you both have them otherwise you don’t.”
However with two of the six MPs on the outer, and new MP Oriini Kaipara additionally voicing a point of help for Kapa-Kingi on social media, and two of the citizens executives refusing to again Tamihere, his numbers aren’t clear lower.
Shortly earlier than the caucus assembly, I heard from co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. She jogs my memory it took 4 or 5 months to resolve the dispute between the celebration management and MP Hone Harawira resulting in his resignation in 2011 – implying there must be no expectation this yr’s row want be resolved shortly.
“We do have the strain of getting this Authorities out and should make sure the pāti does what’s required, that’s my absolute precedence,” she says.
This week, she ‘favored’ a petition posted by Ferris’ citizens govt on social media, in search of Tamihere’s resignation. That was “undoubtedly inadvertent”, she says. “The method to deal with executives is in our structure, not by way of rage baiting or petitions. Rawiri and I’ve robust mandates mixed to guide this celebration to authorities.”
Arriving at Parliament this morning, Rawiri Waititi rejected the petition for Tamihere’s resignation. “Should you can show to me why it’s a distraction and any purpose why he ought to resign, then that might be good,” the co-leader (who’s additionally Tamihere’s son-in-law) instructed ready media. “However individuals throwing out allegations of toxicity, bullying and dictatorship with none proof, I believe, is one thing for you fellas to pursue.
“Look, our tipuna traversed the oceans to get right here, and plenty of storms. We are going to get by means of this. Our tipuna additionally went to warfare – World Battle One, World Battle Two, and plenty of different wars.”
What each Waititi and Tamihere acknowledge is that the celebration might be able to expel the 2 MPs, but it surely can not power them out of Parliament. They have been duly elected by their constituencies within the north and south.
This poses the likelihood that Kapa-Kingi and Ferris both defect to a different celebration, if any can have them – or extra seemingly, set up their very own impartial parliamentary grouping and search to recruit different Māori MPs to hitch them.
What appears obvious to bemused observers is that the variations are irreconcilable.
Tamihere, requested whether or not he has any hope that this will really be resolved amicably they usually can keep within the celebration, replies: “Hope stays everlasting.”
