In this special episode of MATA, Mihingarangi Forbes hosts a panel discussion about Meka Whaitiri's defection from the Labour Party to join Te Pāti Māori. Her guests are former Te Pāti Māori MP Marama Fox, former Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels, former Labour executive member Shane Te Pou, and Morgan Godfery.

Whaitiri will replace the candidate already chosen for the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti electorate by Te Pāti Māori, Heather Skipworth, who has agreed to step aside.

In 2020 Labour won 67 percent of the party vote while Te Pāti Māori took just 12 percent, and the seat has not been flipped in 27 years, Forbes said.

Fox said Whaitiri's move would not be an easy decision for some to stomach. However, she believed it was "a master move" by party president John Tamihere. The timing was perfect with the Prime Minister overseas, and it avoided a by-election by being within six months of the general election.

"It needed to come now if it was going to come at all, but I do think there might be more following in her stead."

Godfery said it was moving to watch Whaitiri advance the reasons for her decision, which had now started to make some political sense.

Invoking the struggle over Māori land for the last 100 or so years and then linking it to the lack of progress over the last five or six years (while Labour has been in government) made a lot of sense for her as a politician but also for the wider Māori political movement.

"So I think there'll be a lot of sympathy for Meka."

However, Fox was more sceptical and believed that Tamihere was the "master crafter of these political movements." She had sat across the benches from Whaitiri while she smashed Te Pāti Māori and instead held up Labour as representing the Māori voice.

There were other Māori who had become dissatisfied with Labour, such as Louisa Wall, while others such as Willie Jackson & Peeni Henare had considered moving over to Te Pāti Māori before sticking with Labour, Fox said.

She accused Labour and National of not having Māori at the forefront of their political aspirations.

"The true voice of Māori sits in the hands of Māori,, and our people need to come to that understanding that they are not being taken care of under the current political climate, whether it's blue or red."

Fox believed with Te Pāti Māori's social-media presence growing and a stronger engagement at the grassroots level, it was a great time to be part of what it stood for.

"We are growing in this space of rangatiratanga, and the Māori Party is the home for this voice."

She believed Whaitiri would retain the seat, although it would be "a hard road" for her…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details