Peter Williams
Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on www.reality check.radio three days a week.
First there was the Waipareira Trust, then the Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA) and now there’s Te Kāika.
They have much in common.
They’re all Māori owned and controlled health and social service providers.
They’re all predominantly government funded.
And they’re a blueprint for nepotism.
Consider these facts. The chief executive of Waipareira Trust is John Tamihere. The chief operating officer is his wife Awerangi Tamihere.
Labour MP Willie Jackson used to be the chief executive of MUMA, following in the footsteps of his mother Dame June Jackson. When he returned to parliament in 2017, his wife Tania Rangiheuea succeeded him.
Meanwhile in Dunedin Te Kāika was set up with the support of uber-wealthy South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu. The chair of the board is Donna Matahaere-Atariki. The chief executive is her son Matt Matahaere. The general manager of social services is her daughter Winnie Matahaere.
Hmm.
Were the wives and children really the best people for those roles in an open and contestable recruitment process? To paraphrase Oscar Wilde one might be acceptable and two a coincidence, but three – really?
What’s worse is that all three organisations are facing scrutiny for a series of either alleged financial irregularities, human resources issues or in the case of Te Kāika, both.
The matters surrounding the Waipareira Trust have been well canvassed. It was investigated for bankrolling political campaigns when, by law, its charitable status expressly forbids that activity.
The Charities Registration Board has subsequently advised the trust it will be deregistered. That action is subject to court proceedings.
Waipareira’s associated entity, the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, of which John Tamihere was also CEO and his wife again the COO, lost its contract with the government this year.
In the last week a podcast featuring The Good Oil’s Cameron Slater with trade unionist and sometime political adviser Matt McCarten has exposed alleged bullying by Tania Rangiheuea at MUMA. A report into her behaviour was allegedly written by the then chair of the MUMA board. But Willie Jackson, now an MP and with no official position at MUMA, has somehow – according to McCarten – arranged for that board chair to not only lose the position but also a seat on the board as well. The report into Jackson’s wife’s behaviour has disappeared.
Meanwhile McCarten, as a trade unionist, has agreed to represent disgruntled MUMA employees who feel they’ve been bullied by Ms Rangiheuea.
Jackson is chair of the Ngā Whare Waatea Marae where MUMA is based. So Jackson has trespassed McCarten from the marae because he says his presence there is a “repeated breach of tikanga and kaupapa Māori”.
Yet the marae is the landlord, not the employer, and it’s against the law to ban a union representative from a workplace. Both the Labour leader Chris Hipkins and parliament’s speaker have been advised of Jackson’s behaviour yet no action has been taken.
More significantly no mainstream media has covered the story. The Platform did last week when Michael Laws interviewed McCarten. Consequently the Platform received a letter threatening legal action from MUMA’s lawyers Chapman Tripp. The Platform is likely ignore it – and so it should.
This is a matter of considerable public interest and mainstream media should have reported it by now. That they haven’t is cowardly.
In Dunedin the Otago Daily Times has produced the country’s best pieces of investigative journalism this year with a front page splash – that’s after the obligatory Harvey Norman wrap-around – with the headline “Trouble in the Village.”
In short, the ODT says a year-long investigation into Te Kāika has uncovered “a slew of disgruntled former staff members, allegations of misconduct and personal grievance payouts”.
The report, over four broadsheet pages, reports how the charity behind Te Kāika, Ōtākou Health Limited (OHL) has breached its own constitution and is being investigated by the Department of Internal Affairs over unsecured interest-free loans to the board chairwoman and her CEO son.
Ms Matahaere-Atariki is quoted as saying she was “surprised by questions around the finances and the general scrutiny on Te Kāika’s operations”.
She has no reason to be surprised. Te Kāika’s annual revenue is $14 million, most of it paid by the government. The ODT has uncovered much evidence that the money is not being spent wisely. Eventually OHL hired a public relations firm which said no more answers would be forthcoming and complained about the ODT’s “persistence”.
It is surely time for the government to hold serious inquiries into these Māori health and social service providers. How efficient are they? How many others are there with issues like the ones outlined here?
Are there worthwhile results being reported for the money paid, especially in social services like addiction counselling and domestic violence support?
Any publicly funded organization, Māori or otherwise, where blatant favouritism is observed in senior management appointments needs to be closely scrutinized.
When the nepotism is accompanied by reports of staff grievances, financial impropriety and underwhelming delivery results then the case for government intervention is strong.
But has this government got the courage for such intervention?
Sadly, no.
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack.
