Entry 70, on 2004-10-19 at 22:13:20 (Rating 3, Politics)
In my blog entry of 2004-10-15 I defended John Tamihere and suggested the Act Party was desperately trying to regain its lost popularity by attacking the Maori members of the government. I stand by that initial reaction and believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of the right in New Zealand politics.
Since then further revelations regarding the operation of the Trust have occurred and it looks, yet again, that a charitable trust for Maori has been operated in a highly suspect way. After all the problems with Maori Television and many other initiatives, you would have though that the people running these organisations would have become extra careful about their financial and personnel management. Apparently that's not true.
The balance of evidence still points to Tahihere being either innocent or an ignorant player in this farce, but that doesn't excuse the way things seem to have been managed. Its just providing ammuniation for the negative forces in politics, such as Rodney Hide, when this sort of sub-standard management is discovered.
For an organisation dedicated to helping the poorest and most disadvantaged people in New Zealand, a payment of over $200,000 to an ex chief executive seems a bit extreme. On the other hand, its interesting to note that when the payment was first made it didn't attract too much attention, and the amount was $280,000, which might support Tamihere's claim that the amount he received was after tax.
Comment 1 by OJB on 2024-03-25 at 15:30:58:
Well, this didn't age well. It might have been at this time that Act was acting (if you'll excuse the pun) a bit dishonestly, but 20 years later my opinion has pivoted completely. I now support Act in showing the glaring hypocrisy, money wasting, and self serving greed in the Maori elites. Never let it be said that I can't change my mind!
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