“They are not in a shape to contribute positively to a potential future government” Hipkins on Te Pāti Māori

Chris Lynch
Chris Lynch
Oct 20, 2025 |

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins says Te Pāti Māori needs to “sort itself out” before it can play any positive role in a future government.

Speaking at a press conference, Hipkins said the party appeared to be struggling with internal divisions.

“It’s clear that Te Pāti Māori have some issues that they need to work through, and that right now, as of today, they are not in a shape to contribute positively to a potential future government,” he said.

“They need to sort that out. It’s clear that there’s a lot of internal fracturing going on within Te Pāti Māori. They need to sort that out if they want to play a positive role in New Zealand’s future.”

Hipkins said his focus remained on strengthening Labour’s position ahead of the next election.

“I also want to be very clear, my job between now and the next election is to grow Labour’s share of the vote as high as we can grow it,” he said.

“The stronger Labour is going into a future government, then the less we will need to rely on other parties.”

On Monday, the New Zealand Herald reported it had identified discrepancies involving six MPs, including Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, between the number of properties they owned and those declared to Parliament’s register of financial interests.

The MPs were Ngarewa-Packer, National’s Gerry Brownlee, NZ First’s Mark Patterson, and Labour’s Jo Luxton, Damien O’Connor, and Ayesha Verrall. All told the Herald they would update their declarations as required.

Since entering Parliament in 2020, Ngarewa-Packer had declared an interest in one property, but following the Herald’s investigation, she updated her declaration to include two additional properties: a residential development in Hāwera and a section in Pātea.

In a post on Facebook, she said, “I made a mistake. I own an empty section in Pātea. I took advice, it was wrong, and I fixed it. I am not naïve about this. I know what it is to be scrutinised to the point of exhaustion, to have every action measured against impossible standards, to be told that strength means never showing strain. But leadership, real leadership, is about honesty. It’s about learning, owning, and continuing forward with integrity, even when the weight is unfairly distributed.

“In this environment, every Māori voice that challenges colonial comfort becomes a target. Every act of resistance is twisted into ‘radicalism.’ Every reset is painted as chaos. Yet our movement is not chaotic, it is courageous. It is Indigenous leadership refusing to fit into systems designed to erase us.”

Chris Lynch
Chris Lynch

Chris Lynch is a journalist, videographer and content producer, broadcasting from his independent news and production company in Christchurch, New Zealand. If you have a news tip or are interested in video content, email [email protected]

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