page_title: Māori Party
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: Māori Party / History / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: New Zealand Maori Party MP Tariana Turia
context_page_description: The Māori Party is an indigenous rights-based centre-left political party in New Zealand. Tariana Turia founded the party in 2004 after resigning from the governing centre-left Labour Party, in which she was a minister, over the foreshore and seabed ownership controversy. She and Pita Sharples, a high-profile academic, became the first co-leaders.
  The party won four Māori seats in the 2005 election and went into Opposition. After the 2008, 2011 and 2014 elections, where the party won five, three and two Māori seats respectively, it supported a government led by the centre-right National Party, with the co-leaders being ministers outside cabinet. Sharples resigned as male co-leader in 2013 and was replaced by Te Ururoa Flavell, who became a minister after the 2014 election. Turia retired in 2014 and was replaced by Marama Fox as female co-leader. The Māori Party failed to win any seats in the 2017 election and left Parliament.
context_section_description: The Māori Party's origins can be traced back to the 2004 foreshore and seabed controversy, a debate about whether the Māori have legitimate claim to ownership of part or all of New Zealand's foreshore and seabed, that arose during the Fifth Labour Government. A court judgement stated that some Māori appeared to have the right to seek formal ownership of a specific portion of seabed in the Marlborough Sounds. This prospect alarmed many sectors of New Zealand society however, and the Labour Party foreshadowed legislation in favour of state ownership instead. This angered many Māori, including many of Labour's Māori MPs. Two MPs representing Māori electorates, Tariana Turia and Nanaia Mahuta, announced an intent to vote against the legislation.
  Turia, a junior minister, after being informed that voting against the government would appear "incompatible" with holding ministerial rank, announced on 30 April 2004 her intention to resign from the Labour Party. Her resignation took effect on 17 May, and she left parliament until she won a by-election in her Te Tai Hauauru seat two months later. After leaving the Labour Party, Turia, later joined by Sharples, began organizing a new political party. They and their supporters agreed that the new organisation would simply use the name of "the Māori Party". They chose a logo of black and red – traditional Māori colours – incorporating a koru design, also traditional. The leaders of the Māori Party indicated that they wished to unite "all Māori" into a single political movement. The party was formally established on 7 July 2004.
caption: Tariana Turia resigned from the Labour government in 2004, becoming a founding co-leader of the Māori Party.
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