Te Pāti Māori
Te Pāti Māori, also known as the Māori Party, is a left-wing political party in New Zealand advocating Māori rights. With the exception of a handful of general electorates, Te Pāti Māori contests the reserved Māori electorates, in which its main rival is the Labour Party.
Under the current leadership of Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, it promotes the following policies: the upholding of tikanga Māori, the dismantling of systemic racism, and the strengthening of the rights promised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, including tino rangatiratanga. The party is also committed to a mixture of socially progressive and green policy through a "Tiriti-centric" lens. This includes eradicating Goods and Services Tax on food, opposing deep sea drilling, organising and funding a Māori health authority, lifting the minimum wage to $25 an hour, returning Department of Conservation land to Māori control, and reducing homelessness. Since Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer's leadership began in 2020, the party has been described as left-wing, and progressive.
Tariana Turia founded the Māori Party in 2004 after resigning from the governing Labour Party, in which she served as a minister, over the foreshore and seabed ownership controversy. She and Pita Sharples, a high-profile academic, became the first co-leaders. The party won four Māori seats in the 2005 election and went into Opposition. After the 2008, 2011 and 2014 elections, where the party won five, three and two Māori seats respectively, it supported a government led by the centre-right National Party, with the Māori Party co-leaders serving as ministers outside cabinet. During this time, the party advocated more moderate politics.
The party won no seats in the 2017 election, which was analysed as being backlash for their support of National. Under new leadership they returned at the 2020 general election, when Rawiri Waititi won the Waiariki electorate. Although the party's share of the country-wide party vote declined from 1.18% in 2017 to 1.17% in 2020, winning Waiariki gave the party the right to full proportional representation, giving it two members of parliament, with co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer subsequently becoming a list member. Waititi joined Ngarewa-Packer as co-leader in October 2020 and the pair led the party to win six electorate seats and 3.08% of the popular vote in the 2023 general election. In 2025, the national council voted to expel MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris from the party.
History
Formation
The origins of Te Pāti Māori can be traced back to the 2004 foreshore and seabed controversy, a debate about whether the Māori have legitimate claim to ownership of part or all of New Zealand's foreshore and seabed that arose during the Fifth Labour Government. A court judgement stated that some Māori appeared to have the right to seek formal ownership of a specific portion of seabed in the Marlborough Sounds. This prospect alarmed many sectors of New Zealand society however, and the Labour Party foreshadowed legislation in favour of state ownership instead. This angered many Māori, including many of Labour's Māori MPs. Two MPs representing Māori electorates, Tariana Turia and Nanaia Mahuta, announced an intent to vote against the legislation.Turia, a junior minister, after being informed that voting against the government would appear "incompatible" with holding ministerial rank, announced on 30 April 2004 her intention to resign from the Labour Party. Her resignation took effect on 17 May, and she left parliament until she won a by-election in her Te Tai Hauauru seat two months later. After leaving the Labour Party, Turia, later joined by Sharples, began organising a new political party. They and their supporters agreed that the new organisation would simply use the name of "the Māori Party". They chose a logo of black and red—traditional Māori colours—incorporating a traditional koru design. The party constitution provides that there are two party co-leaders, one male and one female. Turia and Sharples were the first to fill these roles. They indicated that they wished to unite "all Māori" into a single political movement. The party was formally established on 7 July 2004.
2005 election and first term in Parliament
In the 2005 election, the Māori Party won four out of seven Māori seats and 2.12% of the party vote. The latter entitled the party to only three list seats, so the fourth electorate seat caused an overhang seat. In the election night count, the party vote share was under 2% and the Māori Party would have got two overhang seats; when the overhang was reduced to one, National lost a list seat that they appeared to have won on election night. Tariana Turia held Te Tai Hauauru; Pita Sharples won the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate; Hone Harawira, son of Titewhai Harawira, won Te Tai Tokerau; and Te Ururoa Flavell won Waiariki.In the post-election period the Māori Party convened a series of hui to decide whether to support Labour or National, though some party leaders indicated they preferred to deal with Labour. National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee and leader Don Brash tried to win over the Māori Party and claimed that it would support National to form a government, although Turia denied this. She met privately with prime minister Helen Clark and ruled out a formal coalition. Later, the Māori Party decided to remain in opposition and not be part of a Labour-led government.
On 24 January 2006 the Māori Party's four MPs were jointly welcomed to Rātana pā with Brash and a delegation of eight National MPs. They had been intended to be welcomed on half an hour apart but agreed to be welcomed and sit together. Turia disputed claims that this was pre-arranged, saying: "We're here for a birthday. We're not here for politics." However critics said this would have reminded onlookers of how the Māori Party and National were said to be in coalition or confidence and supply talks. This may also have served to reinforce the Labour Party's election campaign statement that a 'vote for the Māori Party is a vote for National'. One Rātana kaumatua said this was deliberate and deserved after the talks.
Supporting a National-led government: 2008–2017
In the 2008 general election the Māori Party retained all four of the seats it won in 2005, and won an additional seat, when Rahui Katene won Te Tai Tonga from Labour. Two seats were overhang seats. The party's share of the party vote rose slightly to 2.39%. The Labour Party won the party vote by a large majority in every Māori electorate, meaning that the typical Māori voter had split their vote, voting for a Māori Party candidate with their electorate vote and the Labour Party with their party vote.The National Party won the most seats overall and formed a minority government with the support of the Māori Party, ACT New Zealand and United Future. Sharples was given the Minister of Māori Affairs portfolio and became an Associate Minister of Corrections and Associate Minister of Education. Turia became Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Associate Minister of Health and Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment. Hone Harawira was critical of the alliance with the National Party and was suspended from the Māori Party in February 2011. He left the party and formed the left-wing Mana Party in April 2011.
Competing against Mana, the Māori Party's strength diminished. In the 2011 general election, it won only three electorates. The three MPs were Pita Sharples in Tāmaki Makaurau, Tariana Turia in Te Tai Hauāuru and Te Ururoa Flavell in Waiāriki. Rahui Katene lost the Te Tai Tonga seat to Labour's Rino Tirikatene, and Hone Harawira won the Te Tai Tokerau seat for the Mana Party. The National Party again formed a minority government with the support of the Māori Party, ACT New Zealand and United Future. Sharples and Turia were returned as ministers outside cabinet. Ahead of the 2014 general election, Flavell became the male co-leader. Neither Sharples nor Turia stood for re-election. At the election, Flavell held Waiāriki electorate seat, and the party was entitled to one further list seat as it received 1.32% of the party vote. This went to Marama Fox, who became the next female co-leader.
Prior to the 2017 general election, the Māori Party formed an electoral pact with the Mana Movement leader and former Māori Party MP Hone Harawira. The Māori Party agreed not to contest Te Tai Tokerau as part of a deal for the two parties to try to regain the Māori electorates from the Labour Party. In the election, they failed to take any seats, with Labour capturing all seven of the Māori electorates. Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell expressed sadness at the loss of seats and announced he would be resigning from politics. Fellow co-leader Marama Fox expressed bitterness at the party's defeat, remarking that New Zealand had chosen to return to the "age of colonization" and attacked the two major parties, National and Labour, for their alleged paternalism towards Māori. Fox commented that Māori have "gone back like a beaten wife to the abuser" in regards to Labour's sweep of the Māori seats. Metro Magazine described the Māori Party's poor results as being part of backlash against them for helping National form a government. Within the following 12 months, the party’s senior figures resigned: Flavell and Fox stepped down from the co-leadership and party president Tukoroirangi Morgan also resigned. This opened the field for a new generation of party leaders, namely Rāwiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
2020 general election
The party announced John Tamihere as its candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate in March 2020. Tamihere had held the electorate from 2002 to 2005, but for the Labour Party. He had also run for Mayor of Auckland in 2019 without success. Tamihere's mayoral campaign was more right-wing, and he said the Māori Party could happily work with the National Party. This contradicted Māori Party President Che Wilson, who had set out a clear preference to work with Labour and had said "if we ever do talk to National it will have to be a big deal for us to move that way again."On 15 April 2020, the party announced that John Tamihere and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were the new party co-leaders.
In late May 2020, the party received a broadcasting allocation of $145,101 for the 2020 election.
In September 2020, Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate Heather Te Au-Skipworth released the party's sports policy which included establishing a national Māori sporting body and investing in Māori sporting scholarships and programs. She also stated "it is a known fact that Māori genetic makeup is stronger than others... Our ancestors were not just athletic, they were also strategic thinkers with intentions to survive. This all required stamina, resilience, endurance, speed, agility and logic." The genetic superiority remarks were subsequently deleted prior to the 2023 New Zealand general election.
At the 2020 general election, held in October, the Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi captured the Waiariki electorate, defeating Labour MP Tāmati Coffey by a margin of 836 votes. This allowed the Māori Party to enter Parliament, and with its party vote of 1.2%, it was entitled to two MPs. After Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer entered Parliament as the highest-ranked person on the party list. As the only male Māori Party MP, Waititi replaced Tamihere as a co-leader.
On 11 November, former party co-leader Tamihere requested a vote recount in the Māori electorates of Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Tai Hauāuru, alleging Māori voters had encountered discrimination during the 2020 election. Tamihere claimed that the recount was intended to expose discriminatory laws such as the five-yearly Māori Electoral Option. He also alleged longer wait times for Māori voters at election booths and some Māori not being allowed to vote on the Māori roll.