Veteran Tauranga politician Mita Ririnui says it is a 'probability” he will leave Parliament at the end of the current term, finishing with this year's general election.

The Labour MP represented Waiariki in Parliament from 1999 until 2005 when the Maori Party's Te Ururoa Flavell won the seat.

'This is my fourth term and it's probably time to let others step up and for me to step back,” says Mita.

'I still have a life to live and I want to get on with it.”

Te Ururoa won Waiariki by large margins at the 2005 and 2008 elections.

Mita says the Labour Party did not pressure him to step aside so a fresh face could be more competitive against Flavell.

Labour has already selected 46 year old Rotorua lawyer Louis Te Kani as Mita's replacement.

'This is my choice. I always did say to the party that when I do leave Parliament it will be my decision, no-one else's,” says Mita.

He revealed to SunLive that he considered leaving the party with fellow MP Tariana Turia in 2004 when Maori expressed fierce opposition to the controversial foreshore and seabed legislation.

'If I had done what Tariana Turia had done, I would still be the member for Waiariki, but there was a cost attached to that.”

The 58 year old says he achieved a lot for Maori during his time in Parliament.

He lists achievements as the return of Mauao to Tauranga iwi, the transfer of the Te Arawa Lakes to the tribes of Te Arawa, positive progress of treaty settlements in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Central North Island Settlement, which is New Zealand's largest treaty settlement to date.

Mita says Labour's new candidate in Waiariki can retake the electorate.

'Unemployment for Maori has risen. Primary health contracts have diminished. There's a lot of uncertainty.

'Maori are feeling the hard end of this government's policies and the Maori Party supported those.”