Former MP Hone Harawira weighs in on Te Pāti Māori turmoil

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Former Māori Party MP Hone Harawira is calling for its ousted MPs to be brought back "into the team", for the party to make a "public declaration of commitment", and a national reconciliation tour before getting "back to ^#$% work". He also dispelled speculation he would be rejoining the party in a formal role, saying it was not time to "jockey" for positions or power. "In case anyone is asking - I'm not putting my hand up for MP for the Tai Tokerau, nor am I wanting to be the president of Te Pāti Māori." In a Facebook post shortly after midnight on Wednesday, Harawira said he had stayed out of the "public debate raging over the Māori Party" until now, "because our comments often get misinterpreted, and because the right-wing media always churns our words into racist click-bait". Te Pāti Māori has been in a period of turmoil culminating in the expulsion of MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris. On the anniversary of the Toitū te Tiriti hīkoi arriving at Parliament last year, Harawira said he had not read the "he said - she said" stuff, as sometimes the detail "clouds the bigger picture". He said Māori were having to deal with the "greatest barrage of racist, anti-treaty, anti-environment, anti-worker legislation we have ever seen from one government". Harawira said the "once all-powerful Te Pāti Māori" was now tearing itself apart with "not an enemy in sight" and the "rest of our people are wondering what the hell is going on?" "These are the people we marched for just 12 months ago, the people we marched with when we took to the roads in the biggest protest march this country has ever seen. "We arrived in Wellington in a blaze of treaty power. We gave our people hope that our unity could overcome, we gave them belief in themselves, and now we're telling them 'taihoa - we'll just tear it all apart and start again'." Harawira said people did not understand what was happening with the party, but were more focused on "benefit cuts, rising prices, treaty rights stripped, land rights removed, school food programs slashed, language belittled, drugs and alcohol, homelessness, domestic violence, joblessness, jail, suicide all on the rise". He said "our people" should be at the forefront of the party's priorities and focus. "But they aren't. They're stranded on the sidelines, waiting for us to get this shit sorted out so we can get back to hammering the government and building our base." Harawira said people would not support the expulsion of two MPs - "so we need to bring them back in" - but neither would people support ousting the current leadership. He said the solution was not in blaming anyone or one side winning, nor could the solution be found in a new party and "forcing our people to take sides". "A lasting memory I have from when I split with the Māori Party in 2011 was the confusion and sadness on the faces of our kuia, something I'd never want to see again." He made a list of recommendations: 1. Bring Meno and Takuta back into the team. 2. Bring the whole team together to discuss a way forward. 3. Outline plans to manage differences and disputes. 4. Agree to a workplan focussed on Te Pāti Māori kaupapa. 5. Make a public declaration of commitment and action to our people. 6. Take the team on a national reconciliation tour. 7. Then get back to ^#$% work. We got a government to overthrow. Harawira said only with a strong united front of Te Pāti Māori MPs can a Māori, Greens, Labour coalition overthrow the current government in 2026. "If we don't get rid of them next year, all the damage they have done will be entrenched over the next three, and all the gains of the past 25 years will be lost." His warnings came with a call to everyone to step up and work together, to "rebuild the team", not because "we love each other, let's call that a work in progress" he said, "but because we love our people more". "Let us make the sacrifices necessary to rebuild the team that helped put us all into parliament in the first place - Te Pāti Māori. "Let us find a quiet space without constitutional clauses, lawyers and too many relations, be open to hearing and sharing, and be willing to apologise for our own shortcomings and forgive others for theirs. "Let us rebuild the strength, commitment and unity of Team Māori." Asked about Harawira's comments, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the party had "huge respect" for him, as she did personally. "He also acknowledges the leadership is strong, and we need to focus on getting this government out." Asked about his recommendation to welcome back the ousted MPs, co-leader Rawiri Waititi said that was up to the National Council. "We don't make the decision on who comes and who goes." He also acknowledged Harawira's "wisdom" and "experience". Another recommendation was fronting te ao Māori through a nationwide reconciliation tour, but Waititi said "it's done" and they stood by the National...

Former MP Hone Harawira weighs in on Te Pāti Māori turmoil

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