‘White feeding frenzy’: John Tamihere launches attack against his Te Pāti Māori-supporting critics

Monday, 3 November 2025

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere is fuming after Te Pāti Māori members called for his resignation.

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere is fuming after members from his own party called for his resignation.

He has now published a long tirade against his critics, saying they’re engaged in a “white feeding frenzy”.

In the post, he challenges two Te Pāti Māori MPs, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris, to resign if they are unhappy with the party’s direction.

This is the latest escalation in the ongoing and remarkable internal political battle which has besieged Te Pāti Māori.

Tamihere, who is facing mounting calls for his resignation - and who has been called in for a ‘please explain’ by the most powerful group in te ao Māori, the Iwi Chairs Forum - shows no sign of going peacefully with his latest extraordinary exposition, which makes further new claims against Kapa-Kingi and her supporters.

Earlier on Monday, the party’s Te Tai Tonga electorate committee launched a petition calling for Tamihere’s resignation. Ferris is the MP for Te Tai Tonga.

In response, Tamihere published an essay of 1335 words titled ‘The Anatomy of Madness’. He claimed there was a plot underway from Kapa-Kingi and Ferris to roll the co-leaders, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi - who is Tamihere’s son-in-law.

Neither Ferris or Kapa-Kingi replied to Stuff’s request for comment on Monday.

Tamihere said Kapa-Kingi launched a relentless “attack” against the party, and him, after she was demoted as the party’s whip earlier this year. At the time, the party claimed she had stepped down mutually to spend more time in her electorate.

But in his post on Monday, Tamihere said she was removed from the role because there were concerns she could lose votes in the Far North.

Kapa-Kingi’s son, former Te Pāti Māori vice president and Toitū Te Tiriti leader Eru Kapa-Kingi, also spoke out against the party’s leadership. He said it operated under a “dictatorship model” and described the leadership as “toxic”.

After that demotion, Tamihere said the Kapa-Kingi and Ferris started to retaliate against the party’s co-leaders and him.

Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris says he has nothing to apologise for despite his own party issuing an apology on his behalf. Caught at Wellington Airport, Ferris dismissed his co-leaders’ response as the party faces deepening internal strains.

“The adverse impact of the Kapa-Kingi entitlement can only be explained by their desire to take over leadership of the Party with Mr Ferris. They could not do that through the tikanga of the Party so they have endeavoured to destabilise the party,” Tamihere said.

The issues between Kapa-Kingi and the leadership of Te Pāti Māori emerged at the same time that Ferris was publicly refusing to heed his co-leader’s request to stop attacking Labour over its Tamaki Makaurau campaign.

In that campaign, Ferris lashed out at Labour for having non-Māori supporters helping Peeni Henare. He said it was “mind blowing” that they were trying to “take a Māori seat from Māori”.

Ngarewa-Packer apologised on his behalf, but Ferris told Stuff he would make up his own mind and that the co-leaders had no greater mana than he did in Te Pāti Māori.

On Monday, Tamihere said he thought the two MPs were engaged in a coordinated campaign, with other Te Pāti Māori members, against their own party.

“Instead of endeavouring to destroy our ability to end this Government’s reign next year, we invite Kapa-Kingi and Ferris to do the honourable thing,” he said.

Tākuta Ferris has sparred with the party.

That “honourable thing”, he said, was to leave Te Pāti Māori and start their own political party - as Hone Harawira did in 2011 when he left the Māori Party.

“I guarantee Kapa-Kingi and Ferris will not do the same thing because their conduct is not based on mana, is not based on integrity and honesty or on principle. Their conduct is based on greed, avarice and entitlement,” he said.

He said there had been ongoing issues between the Kapa-Kingi supporters and leadership of Te Pāti Māori, writing: “This is not our first Kapa-Kingi rodeo”.

“It is not the fault of Te Pāti Maori that the personal interests and entitlement of Ms Kapa-Kingi and her family are now known to everyone.

“The white feeding frenzy that they knew they would inspire continues as it is based on rage baiting rather than any evidence,” he said.

Tamihere and the party’s executive last week started an attempt to suspend Kapa-Kingi, but it was unclear they planned to do so. Her son, Eru Kapa-Kingi, said they would launch legal action to fight the suspension.

In response, late last week, the Iwi Chairs Forum asked all sides the Pāti Māori ruption to meet for a hui to sort out these problems.