The ongoing implosion of Te Pati Maori continued yesterday with the expulsion of two of its MPs by its ruling council.
Exactly what Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris and Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi have done to inspire the ire of their former colleagues remains unclear as accusations and counter claims swirl around.
So does the process used to expel them: party co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi told media yesterday that it had been a decision ‘‘without opposition’’ by the party’s national council, but that did not mean unanimous.
It later emerged that TPM’s Te Tai Tokerau branch had been excluded from the vote, and that Te Tai Tonga and Hauraki-Waikato had abstained.
Little chance of that. One of the first questions asked was whether the party leaders would write to the Speaker - as is required - to set the clock ticking on the process of expelling its former MPs from Parliament.
The response that it had not yet been considered is unconvincing: the party surely knew that they would have to contemplate that further step should they travel down the road of expulsion. Whether they like it or not, what TPM had hoped would be an internal and private matter is anything but.
In the meantime Mr Ferris and Ms Kapa-Kingi are independent MPs, and they will likely be vociferous ones.
Each put out a statement yesterday condemning the process of their expulsion, claiming it was unconstitutional, and stating that they would challenge it.
This imbroglio is only going to get a whole lot messier before it verges on any kind of resolution.
If Te Pati Maori had harboured any belief that the two MPs would go meekly and quietly it would have been a foolishly naive one.
Mr Ferris has been a heart-on-his-sleeve firebrand since being elected as MP for Te Tai Tonga, while the less high-profile Ms Kapa-Kingi has demonstrated thoughtful steeliness in her contributions to the House.
Neither are shrinking violets and neither will shirk from a struggle.
Mr Ferris and Ms Kapa-Kingi were both in the House on Thursday, taking an active part in proceedings having, understandably, not been around for some days.
Seeing Mr Ferris speak and Ms Kapa-Kingi casting votes on behalf of Te Pati Maori - in other words, being MPs - may have been the final straw for the faction opposed to them and led to the weekend’s decision.
Ms Ngarewa-Packer and Mr Waititi put on a brave face yesterday as they addressed the turmoil, claiming a business-as-usual approach was now their focus as they reset to concentrate on making the Luxon administration a one-term government.
However, in doing so Mr Waititi stirred up another hornet’s nest by saying that TPM had been in ‘‘active discussions’’ with the other opposition parties.
Labour has been trying to distance itself from the chaos of Te Pati Maori, knowing full well that all polling suggests it will require TPM’s votes if it is to form a government post the 2026 election - and if it did not know, the governing parties have been quick to remind voters of that fact at every turn.
Now Labour has been dragged right back into a rampaging fire. Ruling out Te Pati Maori will anger some of its supporters, ruling it in opens Labour up to the difficult to disprove argument that TPM is not a force for stable government.
A responsible political party may arise Phoenix-like from the ashes of the current iteration of Te Pati Maori but as things stand a brutal civil war runs the risk of being an existential crisis.
Should the party, as seems likely, be irrevocably split, the spectre looms of its two expelled MPs forming a party to rival Te Pati Maori in 2026.
The impact that might have on the Maori seats, in which Labour will also be an active force, is impossible to gauge.
Meanwhile, the big winners are the governing parties, revelling in the discomfiture of their rivals.
