Matthew Tukaki is one of New Zealand’s biggest racists and an online bully to boot. He’s also carried on like a flash rat with a gold tooth. Except it turns out his CV is a bit… well… let’s say… embellished.
1News has been digging into his past and nothing is as it seems.
Checks weren’t done on Matthew Tukaki’s resume before he was appointed to a key government role.
And in the same week he was appointed to Director of the Suicide Prevention Office, 1News can exclusively reveal his CV holds inconsistencies.
Just over five years ago, Tukaki came home from Australia with claims of an extraordinary career, claiming he held down a role with the United Nations (UN) and led Drake International through the global financial crisis (GFC).
Back in New Zealand, he became the Maori spokesman on just about everything, and has taken on a number of government roles.
That includes chairing an advisory board to turn around the maligned ministry, Oranga Tamariki, being a director for the Workforce Development Council for the Tertiary Education Commission and this week he was appointed as the director of the Suicide Prevention Office.
The circumstances surrounding Tukaki’s departure at the UN are disputed.
In his Maori Council bio, Tukaki claimed he was directly appointed to the global entity by the then Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to sit as a member of the institution’s governing board. According to Tukaki, he undertook the position for over three years.
A UN spokesperson said it was an elected position, not an appointment by the Secretary General, and one which he held for less than a year.
“He then had to resign the role of Local Network Representative when he was asked to step off the [Global Compact Network Australia] board for an alleged serious breach of director’s duties, including misrepresenting himself at meetings with the Australian government.”
Tukaki disagrees with the spokesperson’s representation of his departure.
1News
Of course he disagrees – they always do when busted. But what about his fantabulist job at Drake? Yeah that’s bulldust too.
In various places, including on LinkedIn, his biography for the Maori Council, and the information he presented to the Tertiary Education Commission, Tukaki described leading Drake International through the GFC, and holding power of attorney for the Southern Hemisphere at the recruitment company.
A spokesperson for Drake International rebuffed Tukaki’s description.
They say he worked there for a year between 2007 and 2008, and a further month in 2010, and that his title in their records in Australia was ‘General Manager, Government and Public Sector’.
A further top source at the company said Tukaki “overstated” the scope of his employment. When queried whether Tukaki had led the company through the GFC, the short response was, “not at all”.
When questioned about his statements of leading Drake through the GFC, Tukaki was to the point: “Yes, absolutely.” In a later statement provided by Tukaki, he said his job was to grow revenue and sales, which coincided with the GFC.
1News
Well, Drake was on his CV, but that’s about all that matches.
Oranga Tamariki never asked for a CV when it charged Tukaki with turning the organisation around and paying him at a rate of $1000 a day, on the taxpayer dime.
There was no requirement to check Tukaki’s employment history, says the Minister for Children, Kelvin Davis.
He was well-known and had previously been appointed to government positions, Davis says.
“So we just trusted in what they had done, and I’d heard about the stuff he’d done apparently overseas. He was also the head of the Maori Council,” Davis said.
1News
I’ll bet you a dollar to a knob of goat poo that there is more to this story; 1News has only just got going on it, and now the story is out there others will come forward about his dodgy past from his school days to the present.
What is delicious is watching Kelvin Davis defend the indefensible. Matthew Tukaki will be yet another example of the cosy relationship and jobs for the bros with little or no scrutiny, leading to an increasing perception that this Labour Government is corrupt or at the very least dodgier than a week-old dinner box from KFC that’s been sitting in the boot of a car for as long.
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