Kapa-Kingi v Tamihere - [2026] NZHC 517

Application for judicial review of a political party leadership's conduct on the basis it was unlawful under the party's constitution. The first applicant, a Te Pāti Maori electorate MP, claimed that members of her party's leadership had unlawfully suspended and then expelled her from Pāti membership. The applicants also claimed that the Pāti president had not been validly re-elected, making his presidential actions since the expiry of his first term invalid. The applicants sought relief including the reinstatement of the first applicant as a member of the Pāti. 

Held: Application granted in part. Declarations made that the first and/or second respondents' resolutions to suspend and then expel the first applicant from Pāti membership were unlawful under the party’s constitution. Order made setting aside those decisions, reinstating the first applicant as a Pāti member. Court found no invalidity in the process leading to third respondent’s re-election as Pāti president, so the cause of action failed.