New Zealand is basically a snake-free country. From time to time sea snakes arrive carried on the currents and will come ashore to lay their eggs. It is well known that there are no land snakes in the country…until maybe now. These are the ‘snakes in the grass’ of the human variety. They are unpleasant people who can’t be trusted. If the myriad allegations swirling around John Tamihere, the Maori Party and the Manurewa Marae prove to be correct they may well fall into this category.
Employee advocate Allan Hulse, speaking with Mike Hosking, says the case involving Te Pati Maori has “more tentacles than an octopus”. He says whistleblowers have been vilified for raising accusations against the party. According to Allan the workers were accused of things the marae were doing themselves. He says there are two aspects to the case: one is criminal involving electoral matters, the other refers to the unethical conduct that took place.
Mike asked Allan, “Hand on heart, you have seen evidence that, without the shadow of a doubt, is in breach of something whether it be the law or the rules.” He replied, “Absolutely, hand on heart I can say that.” He says the Ministry of Social Development basically funded the election campaign run by the former chief executive of the marae. He says the marae staff, over 50 of them, basically campaigned for the chief executive the entire time she ran for election.
He further said that a lot of the money intended for people on benefits never got there because it was being used in this way. Allan says MSD needs to be investigated, as does Stats NZ and the Electoral Commission, both of whom, he says, failed to investigate complaints made at the time. He wants an investigation into the Public Service by someone who has no allegiance to it. This is so these departments don’t have the ability to set narrow guidelines and terms of reference themselves thereby denying a full investigation.
Talk about opening a can of worms. If the above, as stated by Allan Hulse, is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then one can foresee a lot of wriggling taking place in certain quarters. However, based on Allan’s information, it would appear wriggle room might be in short supply. My opinion is a whole lot more ‘goings on’ will be exposed if the investigations are along the lines of what Allan wants. It is alarming to me, the allegations he is making in terms of what seems, on the face of it, the connivance of certain arms of the Public Service. Is the Labour Party a conspirator in all of this?
Here’s the thing. This is proof at long last (if we need it) of the blatant pandering to the vociferous racist Maori minority that has plagued this country for far too long. This is akin to what would happen if you were to give alcoholics free rein in a brewery. It’s open slather and an invitation to get up to all sorts of mischief. The submissive attitude to the racist minority has been in play for years and it needs to stop, not next week, next month or next year but now.
The rest of us, in essence, have been ripped off for decades while those in authority, including successive governments, have turned a blind eye simply because the wrongdoers are Maori and we must not offend. Christopher Luxon says this is a matter for the Maori Party. No it isn’t! We, the taxpayers, are involved. If the allegations concerning the Ministry of Social Development are correct, our money is being used to fund the campaign of a candidate.
In an article in May last year, Thomas Cranmer reported that the Waipareira Trust paid out a six million dollar management fee and noted: “The management fee alone is an eye-watering amount and seems difficult to justify in the context of the services that the commissioning agency is seeking to fund.”
Where does that money come from? It doesn’t fall out of a tree. Reading his article one can see the golden run the trust had during the tenure of the last Labour Government. Thankfully they are gone, but what will the coalition do? Again, I think we might be relying on NZ First and ACT to initiate a broader and closer look at Tamihere’s fiefdom.
Now that investigations, hopefully significant, have started, surely this is the time to have the debate about the current day relevance of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Waitangi Tribunal and the Maori seats. The time has come to stop being afraid to have certain discussions for fear of being seen as racists. We are not the racists: it’s our accusers who are. We have been played for fools for far too long. The games that the rabble rousers have got away with need to cease.
Personally I would modify the Treaty to reflect its modern day purpose, disband the Waitangi Tribunal, which has outlived its original brief, and legislate to abolish the Maori seats. They do nothing beyond giving the left a seven seat start at the election. These actions would go someway to ensuring we are one people living in harmony – which the vast majority, including Maori, are doing now.
In conclusion, I have no doubt there are good people at the Waipareira Trust doing much needed and excellent work, but that is being overshadowed by the currently alleged shenanigans. The onus is on the Government, who fund the operation, to undertake a restructuring of the organisation to ensure the money it is given is appropriately allocated and used for the purpose it was intended. As of this moment the aromas circulating around John Tamihere, the Trust and the Manurewa Marae are pungent as to the smell and poisonous as to the taste.
In a recent mindless rant, Tamihere’s daughter, who is the wife of the fella wearing the cowboy hat, said, “We can do whatever the f**k we like”. That would appear to accurately reflect their mindset to date. However, they might be about to find out the opposite is true. Then we have the Maori Party pretending to represent their people. What a joke. They are dangerous to our democracy, our society and how we choose to live in New Zealand. I call on the coalition Government to take immediate action to sort this subversive behaviour out.
