Eru Kapa-Kingi claims the party had an executive and leadership model that "thinks it's beyond critique". Photo: Image courtesy of Te Tari o te Kiingitanga
Former Te Pāti Māori staffer Eru Kapa-Kingi has taken to social media to defend his criticism of party leadership, saying - despite knowing he'd be "dragged through the media" - he stands by claims that it had become "extremely toxic" and "veered completely" off path.
He says Te Pāti Māori supporters "deserve better" and party president John Tamihere is "not the guy to get us to Hawaiki hou" - the future those supporters imagine - calling again for new leadership and executive model.
Amid weeks of turmoil, party president John Tamihere acknowledged there was "a process in play" for the two MPs co-leader Rawiri Waititi called "rogue" to be expelled from the party, while a petition called for Tamihere to stand down, with allegations of intimidation and financial mismanagement.
Kapa-Kingi - the son of the Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi - said he knew Tamihere in particular would use "lies" and "half-truths" to paint him as an "entitled, spoiled individual, who's just after status or power or whatever".
"Even though I knew that this was all going to play out in this way, I didn't care and I still don't care," he said. "There might be some kind of reputational damage, but I've never really given any shit about that."
He doubled down on his crtique of the party, saying he understood how Tamihere could "use power to try and silence people". He described seeing "firsthand" how those behaviours played out, while working for the party.
"I saw how he [Tamihere] and the leaders would speak to other MPs, how they would treat kaimahi [workers], staffers, many of whom approached me, privately and in confidence, sharing their experiences of feeling absolutely unsafe in their work environment, because of this power dynamic that favoured the leaders, the executive, heavily."
He claimed there was no opportunity for "genuine accountability for the toxic behaviors and environment in that office space".
He said the party had an executive and leadership model that "thinks it's beyond critique", "beyond accountability", and "beyond improving and learning".
Kapa-Kingi said he'd been asked by many for the "receipts", after his initial accusations about a dictatorship model in the party in October and repeated they were not his stories to tell.
He pointed to the late-night email as an example of evidence: "If you're looking for receipts, just look at what's happened in the last few weeks, directly against me."
He described Tamihere, the executive and the co-leaders pressing "the green light" on an email containing information about him.
"Saying that I assaulted a security guard, that I was dismissed from my job in my mum's office because of that, that my mum paid me 120k through her budget and, because of that, she overspent her budget.
"Every single one of those things is a lie, and it was curated and written in an email, and framed in a way where it looked legit, but it wasn't."
He said the email was sent to more than 500 registered members of the party and the party then tried to "play dumb" over the fact the email ended up in mainstream media.
Kapa-Kingi followed up by saying, even if the information was true, what relevance did that have to him accusing the party of having a "toxic leadership environment".
He said it was an effort to deflect "away from the truth" and not address the internal issues, "which proves my point that this is a leadership beyond accountability, beyond integrity and beyond honesty, and we deserve better".
"John Tamihere is not the guy that's going to get us to a Hawaii Hou."
He called for a "genuine resetting" of the kaupapa, new leadership, a new executive model and a re-empowering of the regions.
"All of their power in the last little while has been concentrated in a handful of people in the national executive and this is the result of it."
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