Meka Whaitiri to remain an MP, after ditching Labour for Māori Party

• Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Meka Whaitiri has blindsided Labour and crossed the floor to join Te Pāti Māori.
• Hours after confirming she’d left Labour, she lost her roles as minister for customs, veterans and food safety.
• The news shocked Labour, including acting PM Carmel Sepuloni who found out through a member of the public.
• Whaitiri will stay on as an independent MP until the election.

• Kua konihi te MP o Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Meka Whaitiri i a Reipa, ā, kua peka ki te waka o Te Pāti Māori.
• E ruarua hāora anake i muri i te whakarērea o Reipa, i ngaro i a ia āna tūranga hei minita mō te mana ārai, ngā ika a Whiro, me te haumarutanga kai.
• I ohorere pai a Reipa, tae rā anō ki te pirimia taupua Carmel Sepuloni i rangona ai te pānui i tētahi o te marea.
• Ka noho tonu a Meka hei MP herekore tae noa ki te pōtitanga

Meka Whaitiri has ditched Labour, but will remain an MP as an independent representing Ikaroa Rāwhiti, Speaker Adrian Rurawhe says.

“Meka Whaitiri is from today regarded as an independent member for parliamentary purposes,” Rurawhe told the House ahead of question time on Wednesday.

The Opposition questioned why Whaitiri could remain an MP, given just hours earlier she said she had written to Rurawhe to tell him she had resigned as a member of the Labour Party and was joining Te Pāti Māori.

During an emotional speech at Waipatu Marae, Whaitiri said: “This morning I have officially notified the speaker I have resigned from the New Zealand Labour Party and have joined Te Pāti Māori.”

READ MORE:
* Defecting Labour MP Meka Whaitiri may have just ousted herself from Parliament
* Meka Whaitiri quits as a Labour minister, confirms defection to Māori Party
* Meka Whaitiri leaves Labour for Māori Party, blindsiding the PM: here’s what we know

In 2018, the Labour-NZ First Government passed the controversial “waka jumping” law. The law was meant to prohibit MPs from switching parties midterm, without causing a by-election.

“I have not received any letter of resignation, signed or unsigned,” Rurawhe said.

He told the House that as Speaker, he couldn’t consider the comments made by Whaitiri outside of Parliament – or through other parties. He said he had to rely on her communications with him and the House, and that her speech at Waipatu Marae did not count as a resignation.

Rurawhe said he had received an email from Whaitiri, in which she asked to be seated next to the Māori Party – and move off the Government bench.

“She has asked me and informed me that she has withdrawn her proxy from the Labour Party, and she wishes to sit somewhere else. That’s it,” he said.

Acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said Labour would not push for her to be removed as an MP.

Constitutional law expert Dr Dean Knight said the party hopping legislation was “beset with wiggle room and holes”.

Those technicalities led to a prolonged debate in Parliament on Wednesday, as MPs, the Speaker and Leader of the House Grant Robertson debated everything from medium by which Whaitiri communicated with the Speaker, to whether she would remain a parliamentary member of the Labour Party, or a member of the Labour Party incorporated society, or none of the above.

Knight said Whaitiri was not a Te Pāti Māori MP for parliamentary purposes, but the Speaker appears to have now recognised her as an independent MP as she had requested her proxy vote be withdrawn and that she sit elsewhere in the House.

“I think the Speaker has made his own judgement that she is no longer a Labour MP. She hasn’t advised him that. She was silent on that.

“If she goes the extra step and advises that she wants to be recognised as Te Pāti Māori MP in for parliamentary purposes, in a formal sense, and does that in letter and with her signature, that would trigger a vacancy. But she stopped short of that, by the sounds of it,” he said.

“That’s dancing on the head of a pin, but it’s legally – based on what we know – it’s legally right.”

The National Party’s Michael Woodhouse called on the Speaker to release the email he did receive from Whaitiri. Knight said that to was clear up some of the confusion.

National’s Chris Bishop said it was clear Whaitiri had left Labour, therefore the seat for Ikaroa Rāwhiti should become vacant.

“She has clearly left the Labour Party, and she has told the Speaker she has left the Labour Party, and they can’t rely on her vote in the Parliament anymore. My view is she has invoked section 55 A of the Electoral Act and therefore a vacancy has been created,” he said.