Te Pāti Māori President John Tamihere says the party will respond to allegations made by former Vice-President and Toitū te Tiriti spokesperson Eru Kapa-Kingi “in our time and in our way.”

Speaking to Radio Waatea’s Dale Husband on Monday, Tamihere said the matter was “a separate family issue” and not a Te Tai Tokerau issue nor is it one for the wider movement.

“We purposely want to focus on our positives,” he said. “It’s not a Taitokerau issue, it’s a separate family issue, it’s a Kapa Kingi issue,  and we’re working through that.”

He said the party would not be drawn into public confrontation. “What we don’t do is what Pākehā parties do. What we don’t do is go to Pākehā media to have our kōrero,” he told Waatea. “We had an outstanding national executive hui in the weekend – across all our electorates, and I’m pleased to say we’re in a good space heading into Election 2026.”

Tamihere emphasised that Te Pāti Māori is a tikanga-based movement guided by ancestral wisdom. “There is a tikanga-based solution to every problem in the Māori world,” he said. “Our ancestral intelligence gives us the opportunity to work through issues in a way that doesn’t look for heads on platters – that’s Pākehātanga.”

Eru Kapa-Kingi resigned from Te Pāti Māori in March 2025 without raising concerns at the time, and that his later comments were his personal views only.

Tamihere says the party is united and forward-looking: “What matters is what our people believe, not what the white media says. We’re fully moving forward.”