Te Pāti Māori is the assertion of our mana motuhake and our liberation

candidate 2026

Debbie

Rawiri

Oriini

Ikaroa

Hauraki

Tonga

Tokerau

Nau mai haere mai e te iwi!

Te Pāti Māori will look after you the way a marae looks after all people. Everyone will have a home, be cared for, protected, connected and empowered. We will be sovereign, and together, we will be the kaitiaki our whenua needs us to be.

Our seven pou set out how we will deliver that vision:

KĀINGA | HOUSED:

More public and affordable homes, support to build on Māori whenua, higher incomes and relief from the rising cost of living.

TAUMARU | CARED FOR:

Māori-led, whānau-centred health and disability services that are accessible, culturally safe and accountable.

TIAKI | PROTECTED:

Justice transformation, stronger protection for mokopuna Māori and an end to laws that criminalise poverty and survival.

HONONGA | CONNECTED:

Investment in te reo Māori, Toi Māori, sport, culture and community.

WHAKAMANA | EMPOWERED:

A fairer tax system, stronger Māori enterprise and better access to education, training and opportunity.

MANA MOTUHAKE | SOVEREIGN:

Te Tiriti-based constitutional transformation and the restoration of Māori authority and decision-making.

KAITIAKI | GUARDIANS OF THE WHENUA:

Protection of our whenua, wai and moana, including banning seabed mining and upholding Māori authority over natural resources.

THIS ELECTION, WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR CANDIDATE VOTE

A candidate vote for Te Pāti Māori gives us the best chance of delivering three things for Māori:

1. MORE MĀORI IN PARLIAMENT

A candidate vote for Te Pāti Māori gives us the best chance of winning the Māori electorates, while Māori candidates from other parties who are high on their party lists may still enter Parliament too.

That means more Māori voices around the decision-making table.

2. A ONE-TERM GOVERNMENT

Winning the Māori electorates gives us the strongest chance of stopping the current Government from securing another term.

3. AN INDEPENDENT MĀORI VOICE

More Te Pāti Māori MPs will ensure Māori have a strong and independent voice influencing the direction of the next Government.

MOKOPUNA DECISIONS

This election, we are putting our money where our mouth is.

We are putting the future of our mokopuna before political ego.

Your candidate vote gives us the best chance of getting more of our people into Parliament to defend our rights, advocate for our whānau and shape the decisions that affect generations to come.

Candidate Vote Te Pāti Māori

Become a Member

Koha

Volunteer

Policies

See all policies

Te Tiriti Entrenchment preview image

Te Tiriti Entrenchment

What we’ll do Establish a Matike Mai Fund Implement the Untied Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples Establish an Independent Te Tiriti Commission Make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding Why it matters Te Tiriti should not depend on who wins an election. For too long, governments have been able to weaken, remove, or ignore their Te Tiriti obligations. Our policy changes that by making the Crown legally accountable while resourcing Māori to determine the constitutional future of Aotearoa for ourselves. This is not about Parliament giving Te Tiriti its authority. Parliament did not create Te Tiriti; it is about binding the Crown to the promises it already made and ensuring that no future government can simply choose to walk away from them. To read the full policy click here

Tax preview image

Tax

What we’ll do Make sure the wealthiest pay their fair share. Use that revenue to fund housing, health, education and whānau support. Why it matters When the system rewards the top and squeezes everyone else, poverty becomes permanent. A country that protects the wealthy while whānau go without is not fair, it is rigged. Tax is one of the ways we return power, resources, and opportunity back to the people who keep this country moving. To read the full policy Click here

Kai Sovereignty preview image

Kai Sovereignty

What we’ll do Protect Māori food systems (including seed sovereignty, rejecting GE foods, and upholding WAI262). Invest in community food systems and regenerative Māori agriculture. Break corporate control by supporting Māori-owned supermarkets and protecting local kai sellers. Increase access to land for food production. Why it matters Aotearoa grows enough kai to feed everyone, yet too many whānau are goinghungry. That is not scarcity, it is system failure. Kai sovereignty means affordable,healthy kai connected to whenua, whakapapa, and Māori control.

Mokopuna Māori preview image

Mokopuna Māori

What we’ll do End the pipeline that removes Māori children from their people. Restore whānau authority and invest in whānau-led care. Make the state accountable for harm caused through uplifts and placements. Why it matters Our tamariki are not state problems to be managed. They are whakapapa, promise, and future leaders born to thrive. Protecting mokopuna Māori means restoring whānau authority and ending the systems that separate our children from their people.

Disabilities preview image

Disabilities

What we’ll do Support Māori-led disability services and decision-making. Make support easier to access and less degrading. Fund support that fits whānau realities, not bureaucratic categories. Why it matters Disabled Māori deserve support that honours their mana, their whānau, and their right to live fully. No one should have to fight a degrading system just to access the care, dignity, and support they are entitled to.

Housing preview image

Housing

What we’ll do Build and support more public and affordable homes. Make it easier to build homes on Māori/ancestral land. Stop speculation and land-banking (including action on vacant properties). Why it matters A warm, safe, secure home is not a luxury. It is the ground everything else stands on: health, education, safety, stability, and hope. Our people deserve homes, not waiting lists, overcrowding, or speculation.

Education & Training preview image

Education & Training

What we’ll do Build Māori-led education authority and solutions. Embed mātauranga Māori properly across learning. Remove barriers that block whānau from education and training. Support Māori governance and decision-making in education. Why it matters Education should never teach our tamariki to leave themselves at the door. It should strengthen identity, grow confidence, open pathways, and prepare our people to lead in the world as Māori.

Toi Māori preview image

Toi Māori

What we’ll do Invest in Toi Māori and Māori creative industries. Protect Māori cultural rights and expressions. Back Māori-led arts infrastructure, funding, and pathways. Why it matters Toi Māori is not decoration. It is truth-telling, resistance, healing, identity, and legacy. Our art carries the stories others tried to silence and projects our imagination into the future.

Te Reo Māori preview image

Te Reo Māori

What we’ll do Strengthen te reo Māori and normalise it everywhere. Invest in te reo Māori learning pathways and community-led language revitalisation. Make sure the state is accountable for protecting te reo Māori. Why it matters Te reo Māori is not just a language. It is identity, memory, authority, and the sound of our survival. When te reo thrives, our people stand taller and our nation becomes more honest about who it is.

Health preview image

Health

What we’ll do Re-build and strengthen Māori-led health authority and solutions. Shift the system toward prevention and whānau wellbeing, not just crisis response. Make services accessible, culturally safe, and accountable to Māori. Why it matters A health system that does not understand Māori will keep failing Māori. Our people deserve care that sees the whole person, strengthens whānau, prevents harm, and is accountable to the communities it serves.

See all policies

Calculate Your Tax

Calculate Your Tax

Find out how much extra money you will save under our plan with our tax calculator.

Calculate your tax

Featured Campaigns

See all campaigns

Support Whaea Debs Members Bill to permanently Ban Seabed Mining in New Zealand Waters!

Support Whaea Debs Members Bill to permanently Ban Seabed Mining in New Zealand Waters!

This petition is a show of support for Whaea Debs Members Bill ‘The Seabed Mining Prohibition Act 2026’ which would force a pe...

Take action

See all campaigns

Pānui

TE PĀTI MĀORI LAUNCHES TE TIRITI ENTRENCHMENT POLICY preview image

TE PĀTI MĀORI LAUNCHES TE TIRITI ENTRENCHMENT POLICY

Te Pāti Māori has today launched its Te Tiriti Entrenchment Policy, a major constitutional reform package that will make Crown obligations arising from Te Tiriti legally enforceable and resource the next stage of Māori-led constitutional transformation. “Te Tiriti is the constitutional foundation of Aotearoa. Its mana does not rise and fall depending on who forms the Government,” Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi said. “Our policy is about certainty, accountability and making sure the Crown keeps its promises.”

MP for Hauraki-Waikato Hana-Rawhiti Calls on Govt to Honour its Commitments to Waikato and Waipaa Awa preview image

MP for Hauraki-Waikato Hana-Rawhiti Calls on Govt to Honour its Commitments to Waikato and Waipaa Awa

Hauraki-Waikato MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke says the Government’s decision to delay key provisions of Plan Change 1, which sets rules to protect and restore the health of the Waikato and Waipaa awa, puts 3-yearly electoral interests ahead of its obligations to iwi and the environment. “This is bigger than a plan or a process. It is about whether the Crown will keep its word to Waikato-Tainui and honour the commitments it made – and written into legislation” says Maipi-Clarke. “The power of Te Ture Whaimana is that it can override other pieces of legislation. It sits at the heart of the Waikato-Tainui Treaty settlement and establishes a clear obligation to restore and protect the health and wellbeing of our awa.

Luxon chose culture wars while basic services failed preview image

Luxon chose culture wars while basic services failed

Christopher Luxon has spent too much of his term legislating culture wars while the basic services New Zealanders rely on have been allowed to deteriorate, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says. “The Prime Minister had a finite term to govern. He chose to spend an extraordinary amount of it undoing Māori rights and weakening Crown obligations while the services New Zealanders depend on were deteriorating,” Ngarewa-Packer said. “He found the time to mobilise 13 government agencies to trawl through Treaty provisions across 28 Acts.

Luxon survives today, but he will not survive November 7 preview image

Luxon survives today, but he will not survive November 7

Today’s National Party caucus meeting may have saved Christopher Luxon’s job, but it has not solved National’s deeper problem. This government is consumed by its own survival while whānau are left to carry the cost. For days, New Zealanders have watched a governing party turn inward while families face rising costs, job losses and an economy going backwards. “Luxon may have kept the job, but National has lost the country’s confidence,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi.

Oriini Kaipara MP extends aroha following fatal workplace incident in Ōtāhuhu preview image

Oriini Kaipara MP extends aroha following fatal workplace incident in Ōtāhuhu

Oriini Kaipara, MP for Tāmaki Makaurau, extends her deepest condolences to the whānau, friends and work colleagues of the worker who tragically lost their life at the Auckland Meat Processors facility on Portage Road, Ōtāhuhu. "Our thoughts are first and foremost with the whānau who are now navigating an unimaginable loss. No one should leave for work and not return home to their loved ones." Following notification of the incident, Oriini's office has been actively seeking information to better understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy. The office has engaged with WorkSafe New Zealand, the New Zealand Police, representatives of the Meat Workers Union, and Te Rōpū Marutau o Aotearoa, while also lodging a request for information with Police and submitting an Official Information Act request to WorkSafe.

Te Pati Maori will make the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding preview image

Te Pati Maori will make the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding

Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi says New Zealand First's call to review the Waitangi Tribunal proves the coalition has learnt nothing from the Tribunal's latest report. "The Waitangi Tribunal has found that the Government's Treaty clause review is a major breach of Te Tiriti. Instead of fixing the breach, Shane Jones wants to investigate the institution that exposed it." Waititi says this is about far more than constitutional law.

Government’s patriarchal noise cannot hide cervical-screening failure preview image

Government’s patriarchal noise cannot hide cervical-screening failure

While this Government and its allies manufacture patriarchal noise and drag public debate into personal attacks, a serious health-system failure involving nearly one million cervical screening notifications demands urgent answers. Health New Zealand says there is “no indication of harm”, but the Government has produced no evidence that proves nobody missed screening, follow-up care or an earlier diagnosis.

Government rips up another promise of partnership with Māori preview image

Government rips up another promise of partnership with Māori

Te Pāti Māori Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the Government’s reported decision to scrap existing Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements is not planning reform it’s another deliberate step in dismantling the Crown’s relationship with tangata whenua. “This Government isn’t just rewriting planning law. It is rewriting the place of Māori in Aotearoa.” “One law at a time, one institution at a time, one agreement at a time, they are removing the practical ways Te Tiriti is honoured.”

MFAT Must Act Urgently to Free Everlee Wihongi After Another Delayed Hearing preview image

MFAT Must Act Urgently to Free Everlee Wihongi After Another Delayed Hearing

Everlee Wihongi was set to appear in court today to be freed from ICE detention. Unfortunately, approximately 80 minutes before it was scheduled to begin, the Immigration Court decided to postpone the hearing until June 30, 2026. ICE has no reason to continue to detain Everlee after the conviction that formed the basis of the immigration case was successfully overturned. Everlee has now been detained for over two months, and this is just the latest in a long line of unnecessary delays. “Our aroha goes out to Everlee Wihongi and the Wihongi whānau in the face of this incredibly frustrating and disappointing development” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer

Te Pāti Māori Announces Lisa Marie Murch as Te Tai Tonga Candidate for 2026 preview image

Te Pāti Māori Announces Lisa Marie Murch as Te Tai Tonga Candidate for 2026

Te Pāti Māori is proud to announce Lisa Marie Murch as its candidate for Te Tai Tonga in the 2026 General Election. Born and raised in Murihiku, Lisa brings lived experience, education, service, and a deep commitment to whānau Māori across Te Waipounamu. A young Māori mother at sixteen, Lisa knows firsthand the realities many whānau face. Her journey from cleaning and baking, to becoming a head baker, bilingual primary teacher, kaupapa Māori educator, and specialist across Murihiku and Ōtepoti schools, is grounded in resilience and service.