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Portrait of Rawiri Waititi
Photo via Wikipedia
MP · #99

Rawiri Waititi

Waiariki · Māori Party
Pecuniary interests
5 items
Directorships
2 declared
Recent meetings
0 logged

Bg Background Methodology →

Research run #32 · 26 Apr 2026
Every claim below links to its source. Click any footnote [1] in the text, or expand the citation index after the bio, to see the verbatim quote and the page it came from.

Rawiri Waititi is a Member of Parliament for the Waiariki electorate and Co-leader of Te Pāti Māori [15][17].

According to a single reputable secondary source, Waititi attended secondary school in Auckland [8] and later completed a Master's degree [1]. He is reported to have a background in education [4] and to have served as a Ringatū minister [2], though both of these details come from single secondary sources.

Prior to his entry into Parliament, Waititi is confirmed to have been an iwi leader [5], and a single secondary source also associates him with broader iwi leadership and activism [7]. According to a single reputable secondary source, he was previously affiliated with the Labour Party from 2014 [19] and stood as a candidate for the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti (East Coast) electorate [3]. He is also reported to have stood as a candidate for the Waiariki electorate before his election there [6].

Waititi is affiliated with Te Pāti Māori, also known as the Māori Party [20][21]. According to a single reputable secondary source, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Waiariki on 17 October 2020 [15], with his parliamentary term recorded from 2020 [12]. Sources vary slightly on the precise date he assumed the Co-leader role — one places it at 28 October 2020 [9] and another at 29 October 2020 [10]. He holds the title of Tāne Co-Leader of Te Pāti Māori, according to a single reputable secondary source [17].

Generated 27 Apr 2026 · model claude-sonnet-4-6
AI-generated biography. Assembled by an LLM from public sources (Wikipedia, Hansard, Beehive, Parliament register, news archives). Every claim is backed by a verbatim quote in one of the cited sources below and tagged confirmed, unverified, or disputed based on corroboration. Use as a starting reference, not a final source — cross-check anything load-bearing.
3 confirmed 18 unverified 0 disputed
Verify the bio — expand the citation index 21 sourced claims

Education

Career

Political offices

Party affiliation

Civic roles & honours

Looked for, not found

  • No public record found to directly confirm Rawiri Waititi's membership on the Ngārimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Board — mentioned in PublicData.co.nz but not corroborated by a second primary source.
  • Could not confirm specific institution(s) where Rawiri Waititi worked as a teacher/principal of Māori language immersion schools prior to his Te Wānanga o Raukawa lectureship — secondary sources refer to this background broadly but without named schools.

The researcher checked for these topics across the allowed public sources but could not find verbatim-quotable evidence. Absence here doesn't rule the fact out — it just means no journalist-accessible source covered it at the time of the run.

03 Pecuniary interests (2025) Methodology →

as of 2026-05-27 02:26
Beneficial interests in, and trusteeships of, trusts
Oruaiti 2B2 Trust (trustee) — Oruaiti 2B2 Trust (Trustee)
Winston Wikuku Waititi Whanau Trust (trustee and beneficiary) — Winston Wikuku Waititi Whanau Trust (Trustee)
Debts owed by you
Westpac Bank – mortgage — Westpac Bank
Real property
Family home (jointly owned) – Whakatāne, Eastern Bay of Plenty
Retirement schemes
Westpac KiwiSaver — Westpac KiwiSaver

04 Directorships Methodology →

as of 2026-05-27 02:26
None recorded.

06 Trusteeships & beneficial trust interests

08 Recent meetings (as minister) Methodology →

No diary could be found on Beehive yet.
This person is tracked as a minister, but Beehive has not yet published a proactive ministerial-diary PDF for them. The ingester will pick one up automatically once it appears on their Beehive profile.

09 Recent Hansard speeches

12 In the news Methodology →

50 articles

Coverage from RNZ, Stuff, NZ Herald, ODT, 1News, Newsroom and The Spinoff that mentions this person. Click any source to expand. Article body markdown is captured separately and used for AI summarisation downstream.

Stuff 14
The Spinoff 12
1News 10
RNZ 8
NZ Herald 3
Otago Daily Times 2
  • Russell Palmer of RNZ The Opposition says this year's Budget leaves New Zealanders to fend for themselves, with more spending for prisons and more children in poverty.
    2026-05-28
  • Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says the bill will support economic growth. Photo: RNZ Russell Palmer of RNZ The government is pushing on with conservation reforms it says cuts red tape and enables fees for foreign tourists visiting New…
    2026-05-12
Newsroom 1

13 Commentary topics Methodology →

6 topics · 12 weeks

Topics where op-eds, blogs and press releases have mentioned this person, week-by-week. Each row links through to the topic detail in the discourse lens.

14 Press topics Methodology →

6 topics · 12 weeks

Topics where major news outlets have reported on this person. Each row links through to the topic detail in the press lens. Compare to the discourse rows above to see where reporting and commentary converge or diverge.

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