Speaker investigating TPM following Oriini Kaipara’s maiden speech
Thursday, 9 October 2025
Brand new Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara has given her much-anticipated maiden speech, ending when Speaker Gerry Brownlee suspended the House for disorder as her supporters performed a haka from the gallery.
Kaipara’s speech followed weeks of chaos for the party including the firing of its whip and allegations from the son of one of its MPs of a 'dictatorial' leadership style.
Brownlee sought to end the speech as it ran well over the normally allocated time, ringing the bell to hurry her on several times.
Then, when her supporters started to perform a haka from the public galleries, Brownlee suspended the House.
The Speaker is now investigating whether Te Pāti Māori knew about the haka ahead of time.
Brownlee told The Post Kaipara had explicitly-agreed not to let her speech run over time when arranging for her maiden speech to be held earlier than usual.
“I’ve got no problem with a haka or a waiata, but I have a huge problem when they are used to disrespect Parliament.”
He said even if Te Pāti Māori had not planned the haka, Kaipara had stood from her seat to respond to it.
He noted they had just finished being suspended from Parliament for another haka in the House.
“I am just staggered by the total disrespect Te Pāti Māori chose to show to the rest of the Parliament.”
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After making a series of acknowledgements in te reo Māori, Kaipara switched to English - and promised the House she was not going to give them a lecture on the harms of colonialism.
She said this was already well-documented in Hansard, the record of what has been said in Parliament since its inception.
Kaipara instead promised to give a speech on resilience.
“I express our resilience, the resilience of Māori, the resilience that has carried us through generations of struggle and survival. The resilience that shaped me into the woman, the mother, the grandmother and now the Member of Parliament who stands here before you today.”
She spoke of the acts of resilience by Māori, saying it was critical to their existence then and now. “We created more than a movement, we built community.”
'When I stand in this House, I do so not as a survivor of colonisation who made it in the Pākehā system, but as the product of Māori resilience,' Kaipara said.
Speaking as a former broadcaster, Kaipara said where she used to cover stories, “now I choose to change them”.
ACT’s Nicole McKee said she backed the investigation as the haka had disrupted democracy.
‘Eru has his own way of seeing and thinking’
Meanwhile, demoted Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi says she stands by her son and Toitū Te Tiriti in their choice to step away from the party.
Speaking to The Post on Thursday, Kapa-Kingi said she loved and supported her son Eru Kapa-Kingi - whose protest group Toitū Te Tiriti recently split from the party.
She declined to comment on public statements her son had made of the party’s “toxicity” and being lead by a “dictatorship”.
“Eru has his own way of seeing and thinking, he and the Toitū Te Tiriti group, and so they’ve made their decisions and I love him and I support him.
“…Their actions and where they've taken it, I think is a good thing.”
Toitū Te Tiriti was the driving force behind the hīkoi against the Treaty Principles Bill last year.
She welcomed Oriini Kaipara to Parliament, saying it was great for the party, their presence in the House, and the memory of late Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
“Oriini is taking that place and that is a good thing - it’s a great result from the Tāmaki byelection.”
Of being demoted from her role of party whip last month, she declined to comment except to say the decision was “done and dusted”.
Speaking to 1News on Tuesday in response to her son’s statements, Kapa-Kingi said 'it's time for change, is what I see. Change is good for us. I think, particularly now.'
She then said the younger generation 'don't tolerate the stuff that we used to'.