Mariameno Kapa-Kingi is returning to Parliament for the first time after being temporarily reinstated to Te Pāti Māori. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
MP for Te Tai Tokerau Mariameno Kapa-Kingi is returning to Parliament for the first time after being temporarily reinstated to Te Pāti Māori.
Kapa-Kingi contested her expulsion in court last week and got her membership back in time for the party's annual general meeting in Rotorua over the weekend.
She told RNZ she wanted to be included in the Māori Party's weekly caucus meeting, though she was yet to get an invite.
"It makes Parliamentary sense to me to do that and I've prepared myself for that but I would expect that a discussion or a reaching out would happen. We'll see."
Regardless of getting an invite to the party's weekly hui, she said she would be showing up and working this week.
"I've already had a couple of meetings in terms of the next two weeks. We know that the House is likely to go into urgency because there's still quite a bit of work to push through.
"I'll be there as usual, first thing in the morning ... and we'll set ourselves up in that way. I haven't heard anything from the party, anything formal yet, but I'll be at the House and ready if any of that comes through."
Kapa-Kingi said she had received a lot of respect and love at Te Pāti Māori's AGM over the weekend.
"There was certainly a lot of photo interest and the number of people, I'm talking from across the hui, not just people who I know, but definitely a number from across each of the electorates who were overtly kind, respectful, loving and supportive. They were all of those things directly.
"It didn't surprise me that a lot of them were women, wahine Māori and wahine Pākehā, that were overtly expressing you know, that sort of 'good on you Meno', that kind of thing."
Expelled Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris wasn't at the AGM but published an Instagram story at the weekend, saying, "What Te iwi Māori doesn't need is a political leader driven by UTU'."
While Kapa-Kingi didn't have a speaking slot at the hui, she said Dame Naida Glavish spoke on behalf of Tai Tokerau.
"She got really straight and plain in her reo Māori that only Tai Tokerau can take Meno out because it's Tai Tokerau voters that put her in."
Kapa-Kingi said Glavish also laid down key messages from a large hui at Kohewhata marae in Kaikohe a few weeks ago.
Te Pāti Māori's leadership had been invited but did not attend.
"She laid that down very clearly and had the executive hear that. Obviously up to them how they understand it," Kapa-Kingi said.
Glavish also shared a message from women in Northland about how they thought the Te Tai Tokerau MP had been treated, she said.
"They are absolutely disgusted with the way the president has treated me and the way in which he would address and assault me.
"Their kōrero was you are not suitable to be the president ... and that we will persist with our plans for the Tai Tokerau from the voice of people.
"It's not the executive that runs the people, it's the people, the voices of the people, that will decide what is best for Tai Tokerau."
Dame Naida Glavish spoke on behalf of Tai Tokerau at the AGM, Kapa-Kingi said. Photo: Lucy Xia
Asked if she thought the executive had understood this message, Kapa-Kingi said it was loud and clear for everyone that was present.
"Naida is very straight. There was nothing grey, no nuance in her kōrero. What they then do with that is yet to be seen."
Kapa-Kingi said it was too early to say if the party had made any progress at the AGM.
"I haven't watched or heard [Tamihere's] discussion after the AGM but there was certainly a lot of contest to the discussion from the front table inside the room.
"There was a lot of contest and questioning and clarification, which is typical actually in an AGM, but there was definitely an edge to this."
She said she didn't have any interactions with the party's president John Tamihere or party co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi over the weekend.
"You need to keep yourself safe, I don't mean that in a dastardly way, I just mean you need to contain and moderate yourself.
"Naida was very clear, she was very clear with me; Tai Tokerau, I will carry that voice.
"It's one of the most comforting things when you've got a he kahurangi, he rangatira just saying it's okay, you've done your bit, you've done the heavy lifting. We've already got this decision from court so we'll take this now."
Kapa-Kingi said she was looking forward to taking a break over summer and would not change her mind about contesting the Te Tai Tokerau seat next year.
"Not at all. I am as resolute as I was when we first made the decisions to move a particular way and in fact I'm as resolute as I was when Tariana asked me to run.
"Of course there's ups and downs and life is always present and this situation now, but I'm as resolute as I was then and I'm determined."
She wanted those in her electorate to take a break over summer too.
"Keep connected to the idea that by Māori, for Māori, and all those things Māori that you value, those are still the things that in my heart our party is about.
"Fundamentally, tikanga is critical, te reo is critical, your connections to your marae and all of those very deeply traditional Māori things are critical.
"So connect, reconnect over Christmas with everybody that you love, care about and want to spend time with and just focus on those things because there's a lot to come in the next year."
A substantive hearing into Kapa-Kingi's future in Te Pāti Māori will be heard in the High Court in Wellington on 2 February 2026.
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