Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi will be aiming to play the kingmaker role after October's election, following their success at the polls in 2020 which saw the latter pick up an electorate seat and catapult the party back into Parliament.
So who are the two leaders that could have such a big role after the election?
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
Background
Ngarewa-Packer is from the small Taranaki town of Pātea and is a descendant of the Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahine and Ngā Rauru tribes.
Pātea, where she was born and raised by an Irish mother and Māori father, is to this day where she is "the most grounded", she recently told Newshub Nation.
Political background
Ngarewa-Packer, along with John Tamihere, replaced Marama Fox and Te Ururoa Flavell as co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori in 2020. Previously, at the 2017 election, the party - which had been in a confidence and supply agreement with National in the previous term - picked up no electorate seats and only 1.2 percent of the vote.
She was also Te Pāti Māori's Te Tai Hauāuru candidate, where she was narrowly beaten by Labour's Adrian Rurawhe in 2020. She is standing for that seat again this year. She entered Parliament off the back of Waititi's electorate win.
Before becoming Te Pāti Māori co-leader, Ngarewa-Packer "demonstrated her leadership abilities time and time again", mobilising "her iwi in response to COVID-19, working daily with other iwi leaders and the Crown to ensure there is a Māori pandemic response", then-party president Che Wilson said at the time.
What she wants to achieve
Shortly after becoming an MP, Ngarewa-Packer indicated her intention to "be an unapologetic champion for Māori".
Fast-forward to 2023, after three years in Opposition, Ngarewa-Packer continues to push for "a more equitable society for Māori to thrive in".
On the environmental front, she has vigorously campaigned for the banning of deep-sea mining. However, her member's Bill to ban the practice failed its first reading in Parliament earlier this year.
Nonetheless, Ngarewa-Packer has vowed to continue in her "resolve to fight for a strong future for all our mokopuna to thrive".
"I have demonstrated throughout my career, spanning both before and after my time in Parliament, that I can deliver real change," she says in her Te Pāti Māori biography.
"Our people have the solutions to our own problems. We need Māori MPs who will fight for our solutions, every moment of every day - and that's exactly what I will do."
Rawiri Waititi
Background
Waititi grew up in Whangaparāoa on the North Island's East Cape.
He's the oldest of four siblings and his life revolved around the Whangapāroa community, he told Newshub Nation in a 2021 interview. "You're not from the land, you're of the land. You don't speak te reo, you are te reo."
Political background
Waititi replaced Tamihere, now Te Pāti Māori president, as party co-leader after successfully winning the Waiariki electorate at the 2020 election.
It was a seat he won against Labour's Tāmati Coffey by 836 votes.
Since entering Parliament, Waititi has become somewhat of a mischief-maker; from being booted from the debating chamber for not wearing a tie (a story that made global headlines) to being suspended from Parliament for making comments in the House that could've breached name suppression.
Before running for the Waiariki electorate for Te Pāti Māori, Waititi stood for the seat as a Labour candidate in 2014 - which he comfortably lost to then Māori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell.
What he wants to achieve
Waititi has previously expressed his certainty Te Pāti Māori would be in the kingmaker position come October and help form the next Government.
"I just want to make it clear, here, that Te Pāti Māori's not left or right - we are Māori and we are straight up the guts," he told Newshub Nation earlier this year.
"The dream position for us is to ensure we get the policy gains that our people deserve."
Both Waititi and Ngarewa-Packer have said Te Pāti Māori would only work with parties focused on a Treaty of Waitangi-centric New Zealand.
For Waititi, he wanted Te Pāti Māori to look at "a different relationship in regard to the way we do politics", he said in May.
"We don't want status quo; we don't want what's already happened because that hasn't worked for our people - our people are struggling to put bread and butter on their tables, this is the worst we've seen in terms of the cost of living for our people in decades and so we need to look at something different, because stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
