Te Pāti Māori

Te Pāti Māori ([tɛ ˈpaːti ˈmaːori]), also known as the Māori Party, is a left-wing political party in New Zealand advocating Māori rights. With the exception of a handful of general electorates, Te Pāti Māori contests the reserved Māori electorates, in which its main rival is the Labour Party.

Under the current leadership of Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, it promotes the following policies: the upholding of tikanga Māori, the dismantling of systemic racism, and the strengthening of the rights and tino rangatiratanga promised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The party is also committed to a mixture of socially progressive and green policy through a "Tiriti-centric" lens. This includes eradicating Goods and Services Tax on food, opposing deep sea drilling, organising and funding a Māori health authority, lifting the minimum wage to $25 an hour, returning Department of Conservation land to Māori kaitiaki, and reducing homelessness. Since Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer's leadership began in 2020, the party has been described as left-wing, and progressive.

Tariana Turia founded the Māori Party in 2004 after resigning from the governing Labour Party, in which she served as a minister, over the foreshore and seabed ownership controversy. She and Pita Sharples, a high-profile academic, became the first co-leaders. The party won four Māori seats in the 2005 election and went into Opposition. After the 2008, 2011 and 2014 elections, where the party won five, three and two Māori seats respectively, it supported a government led by the centre-right National Party, with the Māori Party co-leaders serving as ministers outside cabinet. During this time, the party advocated more moderate politics.

The party won no seats in the 2017 election, which was analysed as being backlash for their support of National. Under new leadership they returned at the 2020 general election, when Rawiri Waititi won the Waiariki electorate. Although the party's share of the country-wide party vote declined from 1.18% in 2017 to 1.17% in 2020, winning Waiariki gave the party the right to full proportional representation, giving it two MPs, with co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer subsequently becoming a list MP. Waititi joined Ngarewa-Packer as co-leader in October 2020 and the pair led the party to win six electorate seats and 3.08% of the popular vote in the 2023 general election.