Maori Party MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp has died in Auckland following a diagnosis of kidney disease.
Ms Kemp, first elected in 2023, died in the early hours of Thursday morning according to a party statement which described her colleagues as "heartbroken".
"Takutai Moana devoted every breath to the movement for Maori liberation and worked tirelessly to serve her community of Tamaki Makaurau," it read.
"As she navigated her health journey, she continued to stand in the House, on our marae, in our communities and she always stood up for our mokopuna.
"As a movement, we are devastated by this news. Takutai was more than a colleague to us, she was our sister, and we loved her dearly."
TVNZ reported that Ms Kemp was on a waiting list for a replacement kidney following her diagnosis in July 2024, and her death surprised her loved ones.
Question Time has been cancelled in parliament on Thursday as a mark of respect.
Ms Kemp is the second first-term New Zealand MP to die in this term, following Greens MP Efeso Collins, who died in February 2024 after participating in a charity run.
Her death will result in a by-election in the Maori electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau, centred on Auckland, which she won controversially in 2023.
The Maori Party claimed the seat from three-term winner Peeni Henare, Labour's defence minister in the last government, by just 42 votes.
Prior to her election, Ms Kemp was the chief executive of Manurewa Marae, a hub in southern Auckland, where staff allege data collected from the COVID-19 vaccination rollout and last census was inappropriately siphoned to the Maori Party.
Labour - whose leader Chris Hipkins has derided the result as "unfair" - is yet to announce whether it will stand in the by-election, the result of which will be immaterial for the government.
Prime Minister Chris Luxon, currently in the Netherlands for the NATO Summit, said he was saddened by the news.
"On behalf of the government, our thoughts are with her whanau (family), friends, colleagues, and the Tamaki Makaurau community," he said.
