Add source Login
Eru Kapa-Kingi allegations: Activist ‘doesn’t regret a single thing’ on Te Pāti Māori feud

Eru Kapa-Kingi allegations: Activist ‘doesn’t regret a single thing’ on Te Pāti Māori feud

The high-profile activist accused of threatening staff at Parliament last year says he doesn’t “regret a single thing” over his public feud with Te Pāti Māori.  Eru Kapa-Kingi’s comments follow the party emailing documents to all its members on Monday evening that accused him of making “threats of physical violence” and “inappropriate and vulgar” remarks to parliamentary staffers at a Budget Day protest in 2024.  Some of the comments Eru Kapa-Kingi is alleged to have made include: “You aren’t s***”, “Get f***ed” and “I will f***ing knock you out”.  Te Pāti Māori’s release of the documents was another inflection point in an ongoing dispute between Eru, who as spokesman for the Toitū te Tiriti movement was a central figure at Parliament for the May 2024 protest. Eru is the son of Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, who was demoted and replaced as party whip last month. Eru previously worked in her office.  Toitū te Tiriti spokesman Eru Kapa-Kingi has yet to respond to the claims. Photo / Denise Piper  Eru broke with the party and earlier this month publicly accused it of having a dictatorial leadership style. He has not directly responded to the allegations in the documents released by Te Pāti Māori, first reported by the Herald yesterday.  In a new post on social media on Wednesday morning, Eru referenced reports of others in the party being frustrated with the leadership.  “These are the silenced voices, almost all wahine, I stood up for. I knew I would get dragged through the mud for it, but I don’t regret a single thing.”  He acknowledged some people would be feeling “confused, disappointed, even let down”.  “I suffered through those same emotions for years because I was a die hard TPM supporter, but then I saw things unfold on the inside. I tried multiple ways internally to fix the problems, and kept coming up short.”  Eru said he didn’t intend to “throw stones at anyone” but instead to “speak truth and stand on kaupapa”.  “Even through all of this, I am feeling so loved.”He finished by saying, “let’s fix our whare so we can roll this blardy government.”  Te Pāti Māori’s late-night email to all members  The allegations against the activist and former staffer were contained in a series of documents Te Pāti Māori emailed its members about 10pm Monday in what the party claims is a response to calls for transparency after it faced accusations of a dictatorial leadership style by Eru Kapa-Kingi. (In separate documents sent by Te Pāti Māori to members, officials raised concerns that Mariameno Kapa-Kingi was in danger of overspending her office’s budget by up to $133,000).  One of the documents included in the email from Te Pāti Māori to members was titled “Te Pāti Māori fact sheet – Eru Kapa-Kingi allegations” and details the creation of Toitū te Tiriti, how Eru Kapa-Kingi was established as spokesman and took on the role of party vice-president before resigning on March 25, citing in a resignation letter attached to the email he wanted to “focus on my own little whānau” and “protect the mana and tapu of the Toitū movement”.  The “fact sheet” referenced Eru Kapa-Kingi’s public claims “alleging Te Pāti Māori was led by a dictatorship, bullying and toxic”.  The document mentions Eru Kapa-Kingi’s contract with Parliamentary Service as a party staffer, which Te Pāti Māori alleged was “terminated for serious misconduct” before he returned working under a company, Tautoru Ltd, which the party claimed was a “way of circumventing Parliamentary Services termination”.  The document refers to a written account from a Parliamentary Service staffer about an alleged incident on “Budget day”, understood to be May 30, 2024, when Budget 24 was released.  Eru Kapa-Kingi, the Parliamentary staffer’s written account alleges, was abusive and made “threats of physical violence”.  The identity of the person who wrote the account is redacted in the...