The former broadcaster tells YOUR EX’s Oliver Hall how takatāpui people helped shape the woman she became, what she wants Parliament to deliver for rainbow communities, and why she is telling voters not to give Te Pāti Māori their party vote
Long before Oriini Kaipara entered Parliament, the people who helped teach her to stand up, speak out and challenge the status quo were takatāpui.
“It’s through my takatāpui community that I learned how to find my voice and give rise to it,” the former broadcaster tells YOUR EX.
“This is really me saying thank you. I will do whatever it is I can for you and all of us.”
Kaipara, who was elected as Te Pāti Māori’s MP for Tāmaki Makaurau in September 2025, says kapa haka was instrumental in giving her the confidence to become a broadcaster, journalist and, eventually, politician.
“It raised me to be a confident speaker, to be extroverted and out there, and brave enough to challenge the status quo.”
Now, she says, that confidence is being put to work for communities she believes are increasingly finding themselves at the centre of political debate.
“Takatāpui have always been a part of us, and the fact that they are a political debate almost every other day is not only disturbing, it’s disgusting. Really disgusting!”
That belief is reflected in Te Pāti Māori’s newly released Takatāpui Policy, which begins from the position that takatāpui identities sit within whakapapa, tikanga and whanaungatanga, and describes takatāpui wellbeing as a measure of Māori wellbeing.
The policy proposes a $200 million investment over three years, including a Takatāpui Commission, gender-affirming healthcare, mental health and suicide prevention services, housing initiatives, violence prevention and investment in takatāpui cultural leadership.
For Kaipara, however, the test will be what actually changes in people’s lives.
If YOUR EX sits down with her again in three years, she says she wants discrimination to have “decreased significantly” and understanding of how people treat one another to have improved.
“Attitudinal change is the fundamental shift we all have to work hard on,” she insists.
Healthcare is another priority.
“There’s a lot of discrimination against our takatāpui whānau in accessing their basic healthcare needs, but also specialist healthcare like puberty blockers.”
New prescriptions of puberty blockers for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria or gender incongruence were restricted by regulations that came into force in December last year. However, following a High Court declaration, the Ministry of Health says it will not enforce those regulations pending the outcome of a substantive judicial review.
Kaipara also points to suicide prevention as key to how she would judge progress.
“Decreasing the suicide rates amongst our takatāpui whānau, our takatāpui communities, is a measure of success.”
Te Pāti Māori’s policy proposes takatāpui-led kaupapa Māori mental health services, integration of takatāpui support into Māori suicide prevention strategies and affirming crisis services nationwide.
Kaipara wants those ambitions to attract support beyond her own party.
“It shouldn’t just have to be one side of the House. It should be a bipartisan approach because all takatāpui are all of us.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise in our conversation comes when YOUR EX asks Kaipara what she would say to non-Māori considering giving Te Pāti Māori their party vote.
“It is with the utmost respect that I ask you: don’t. Please don’t give us the party vote.”
Kaipara says Te Pāti Māori’s election strategy is to concentrate on candidate votes, while encouraging voters to give their party vote to Labour or the Greens in an effort to change the Government.
Personally, she goes further.
“I encourage everyone out there who can to place your party vote with the Green Party.”
Kaipara stresses that this is her personal endorsement, pointing to the support she says Green MPs have given her since arriving in Parliament and the alignment she sees between the two parties on a number of issues.
“The Green Party MPs are a formidable force.”
She remains confident she can work with Labour, but is careful not to promise what Te Pāti Māori’s wider caucus would agree to.
“I’m not a co-leader, so I won’t try to sell you false promises.”
What she is prepared to promise is her own determination to keep takatāpui issues near the top of her political agenda.
“When it comes to takatāpui, I’m very loud and proud, and I scream it within these walls and these halls.”
For Kaipara, that advocacy circles back to the communities she credits with helping create the voice she now brings into Parliament.
“I will do whatever it is I can for you and all of us,” she says, confirming, “I will not back down!”
