Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke has broken her silence over the party’s tumultuous breakdown, saying those involved on both sides have been in the wrong.
“The division of Te Pāti Māori, I've heard both sides. Trust me, I've heard it all,” she said.
“Sometimes I've wanted to give them all a hug and a hiding at the same time,” the MP joked.
Te Pāti Māori turmoil: Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke breaks her silence - Watch on TVNZ+
MP speaks to media about the party’s tumultuous breakdown, saying those involved on both sides have been in the wrong. (Source: 1News)
Infighting among the party has led to the expulsion of MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Takuta Ferris, a petition for party president John Tamihere to resign and attempts by iwi leaders to intervene.
At 23 she’s the youngest of the party’s MPs, recalling how she’d sat and listened to her colleagues over the last while.
“When I've listened, I couldn't hear what they were saying…but I could hear and feel their hurt, pain, and grief.”
The Hauraki-Waikato MP said it had been difficult for her to get caught up in the middle of the deepening rift, which resulted in the expulsions of Kapa-Kingi and Ferris.
“Both sides I understand, and both sides are valid,” she said.
“However, my answer to both sides, face to face, has been that you are all in the wrong.
“The reality of this situation is this is a divide and conquer tactic, and there are no winners in the end.”
Kapa-Kingi and Ferris have both maintained they were expelled unconstitutionally and vowed to challenge the outcome.
Maipi-Clarke said she hoped her former colleagues, the MPs for Te Tai Tokerau and Te Tai Tonga, would be welcomed back into the fold.
“In a perfect world,” she said.
“It almost feels like a divorce between two parents and sometimes you feel like you want to fight over custody. So yes, I would,” she said.
But the MP was also realistic about the divide.
“I hope that one day we can get together. But also, I think it's about accepting each other's differences as well if there's two waka (party’s) that happen to go forward.”
Asked if she still had confidence in the current Te Pāti Māori leadership, Maipi-Clarke said she did.
“I do have confidence in our leadership,” she said.
But the MP said she believed consensus was important.
“I think we're at a real critical time right now where, you know, when we talk about a Māori parliament, essentially the roadmap to that is figuring out the destination between all rohe (electorates) and how they all work in different ways and allowing different rohe (electorates) to have decision-making consensus on that flat-line system,” she said.
Given the turmoil of late she wanted to apologise to Māori while acknowledging the confusion and hurt many have felt.
“We're coming to a real tough time where it's coming up to Christmas and people are thinking about kai (food), people are thinking about grocery prices, people thinking about gas prices, and this is definitely not what we need,” she said.
'They are the only people that I'm accountable to'
The MP today called a hui (meeting) for those in her electorate of Hauraki-Waikato, set to take place in two weeks’ time.
“It's about taking it back to the people,” she said.
“Ultimately, they are the only people that I'm accountable to and they have to decide whether I'm still even the right voice for them.”
Her future in politics and what that will look like is up for discussion.
“At this hui in two weeks Hauraki-Waikato will determine my future in politics. Whether I’m still the right voice, and whether this is still the right waka (party) and movement for them,” she said.
“It's about being transparent and open about actually never being comfortable in politics otherwise, it will humble you.”
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