OPINION
If the Maori Party were kingmaker, would the result be legitimate?
Revelations early in May 2023 in the NZ Herald that “the social services charity Waipareira Trust had agreed with Charities Services to cease making political donations and take steps to claw back $385,000 of interest-free loans made to its chief executive, John Tamihere, has put the controversial politician and media commentator back in the spotlight for the wrong reasons”.
This seemed to be a very ‘reasonable’ response to Tamihere’s ongoing use of public money to fund his political aspirations and one wonders when the Serious Fraud Office or the police will be called in; and if others would be treated in such a low key manner for the misuse of such a large amount of public money over a period of four years for political purposes.
The problem is, apart from an article which appeared briefly in the NZ Herald on a day some other significant event occurred, and was fated, perhaps intentionally, to have a short life, it appears no one else covered it. Very few people have read it and it is now behind a paywall.
Tamihere used public money from the trust he runs, firstly to fund his unsuccessful Mayoral campaign in 2019, then in 2023 to fund the Maori party, of which he is President: a total of $385,000.
In essence, for both campaigns he lent public money to himself (interest free).
What other politician could get away with this, given the ongoing furore over political campaign funding over the years?
Is the PM not concerned about this dodgy behaviour by one of his potential coalition partners, who is running his campaign using public money entrusted to him by the government to deliver social services to people in need in Waitakere?
This is proven fraud being kept on the down-low through investigation by Charities Services with no teeth to prosecute, except to politely suggest Tamihere ‘claw back’ some of the $385,000. What a hilarious suggestion. As if!
This is banana republic stuff. Using some fancy creative accounting, Tamihere has stolen money from the trust he administers, called it an interest-free loan and most recently used it for his own political purposes as President of the Maori party to fund their election campaign.
Things don’t get much worse than this, and there is radio silence out there from the government, which the National party (and Act) should be prosecuting, awkward though it may be, with Tamihere, who no doubt, is ready to call them racist dog whistlers to shut them up.
Apparently, the media are not too concerned about this either; corruption runs deep. Their unbalanced coverage even includes input from Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, the Chair of the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency, which over the years has entrusted millions of dollars to the CEO of Waipareira Trust for delivery of social services.
No questions have been asked of her as to the propriety of Tamihere’s actions and her opinion of them. In fact, bold as brass, Tamihere has also appeared recently on political panels espousing his views with no questions asked about his nefarious financial dealings.
Nor were any questions asked of them about the decision by Dame Tariana Turia (founder of the Maori party) to support her relative, National’s candidate Harete Hipango, running for the Maori seat of Te Tai Hauauru. Could her decision also reflect her disapproval of Tamihere’s dishonest funding method, or is the new face of the Maori party a little confrontational for her liking? The Herald covered this, others ignored it.
Should Raukawa-Tait even be commenting on politics at all when she is deep in this mire: fully supporting, by default, the nefarious actions of her friend Tamihere, in his quest for political power using public money; and slagging off the National party for daring to have an opinion.
Her recent statement that “the National Party is trying to pitch Maori as being public enemy #1” is emotive bullying to stop them from commenting. Any criticism of her, like any of Ardern, would likely get an accusation from her friends in the media of ‘misogyny’.
That will shut almost all of us up.
But comment the National party should, because if the Coalition of Chaos won, then the victory would be by foul means using ill-gotten money by one partner.
National’s Simon Watts did a brilliant job prosecuting forgetful Michael Wood’s shares transgressions, which are small fry compared with Tamihere’s. Where is their voice on this?
The election result would not be legitimate as authorities, likely including both prime ministers (Ardern and Hipkins), knew about this fraudulent activity for months (probably years) and have failed to put a stop to it; in fact, they covered it up.
Wily Tamihere, following the mantra ‘it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission’, is indeed in the driver’s seat, running the show, calling the shots and laughing all the way to the election.