Te Pāti Māori
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi. They want the Treaty at the centre of the state. Two MPs have left the caucus since 2023.
Left. Māori rights. Make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding, and let a Treaty commission pause a Cabinet decision if it finds a serious breach. Shut prisons by 2040. Their 2026 tax plan adds a buyer charge on house sales and a wealth tax from $2 million. Further left than Labour or the Greens on the state and on Māori power.
What they want
- Make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding. A Treaty commission that can pause a Cabinet decision if it finds a serious breach. A $220 million fund over four years so Māori lead the next constitutional step by 2040.
- Shut prisons by 2040. Community answers instead.
- Charge 5 percent when someone buys a house, except a first home under $1 million. That is new this year.
- A wealth tax: 1.5 percent on net wealth over $2 million, 2 percent over $5 million, 2.5 percent over $10 million. Softer than 2023.
- No income tax on the first $30,000. They say about 4.2 million people would pay less income tax, about $4,000 a year extra on average.
- A kai credit for people earning under $60,000, equal to about eight weeks of food. The 21 September paper puts that credit at about $2.8 billion of a $3.1 billion kai plan. They used to promise GST off food.
- Company tax back to 33 percent.
- Māori health, housing and land run more by Māori.
- Protect Māori food systems. Seed money for Māori-owned supermarket chains, community gardens and whenua blocks. Oppose genetically engineered food.
- Put public money into Māori and community stakes in new power plants, so locals own a share of the next generation.
- About $200 million for an independent commission that takatāpui run. Guarantee gender-affirming care in the public system.
- Stop taking Māori children off their people. Whānau-led care instead.
- Put climate change back in the school curriculum.
- $1.25 billion over five years for kura buildings, and a law that locks yearly funding for kōhanga reo. Also $20 million a year for kōhanga buildings, $50 million for about 80 that need work, 20 new kōhanga in three years, and $30 million a year to restore the Māori-language teacher scheme.
- Ask Māori voters to enrol on the Māori roll. Electorate vote TPM. Party vote Labour or Greens. Labour wants both ticks.
- Set up an independent Māori arts body, funded to match Creative New Zealand, and run by Māori artists. Pay 1,000 artists at a time for 30 hours a week, for two years, then the places rotate. They have not named the cost.
- Keep the courts open for climate cases. Ngarewa-Packer called Goldsmith's lawsuit bar rotten.
Things to watch
- This is not a corporate-donor party. Named 2026 gifts include $74,000 from secretary Lance Norman and $40,000 from president John Tamihere.
- Tamihere also runs a big South Auckland charity that gets government contracts. That overlap has been investigated. He says it is a political attack.
- Two MPs left the caucus. Ferris will stand as an independent in Te Tai Tonga. A late September Whakaata Māori-Curia poll put him last on 15 percent, behind Labour's Mananui Ramsden on 30.
- On 4 October they named a one-person party list: secretary Lance Norman. They still ask for the electorate vote, and tell people to party-vote Labour or Greens.
- They call binding Tribunal findings and a commission that can pause Cabinet a coalition bottom line. NZ First now wants to scrap the Tribunal immediately. The Tribunal's 25 September Part 2 report said the Crown had no plan after it scrapped Te Aka Whai Ora. Doocey said no. Hipkins will not rebuild it either.
- A Whakaata Māori-Curia poll in Hauraki-Waikato, taken 21 September to 1 October, put Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke on 45 percent and Labour's Kingi Kiriona on 26. Party vote was Te Pāti Māori 22, Labour 21, Greens 16, with 15 undecided.
What they promised, and what happened
Not in Cabinet this term. The gap is the caucus.
- They won six seats in 2023. Two MPs left the caucus. Mariameno Kapa-Kingi is still an MP and launched Te Tai Tokerau. Tākuta Ferris said on 23 August he will stand as an independent in Te Tai Tonga.
- They have not been in Cabinet this term, so there is no ministry record to score. The question people raise is the overlap of party, charity and government contracts.
Who pays
Raised $142,000 in 2025, the smallest of the main parties. Named 2026 gifts over $20,000 add up to $114,000. That is not a full-year total. Secretary and treasurer Lance Norman $74,000 on 31 July. Party president John Tamihere $40,000.