The Darkness Of The Tamihere Fiefdom

Can One Man's Narcissism Undo Decades Of Good Mahi? Yes.

Yesterday, the Sunday Star Times ran an incredibly serious expose on the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency [WOCA]. In it, highly respected veteran journalist Andrea Vance outlined a number of very serious issues with the way Census data, which WOCA were contracted by Statistics NZ to collect for the official census, was illegally handed over to Te Pati Maori in order to aid their political campaigns. You can find it here.

This isn't the first time Vance has published something that has shaken the political world, and we're lucky to have her working in our national media. 

Bryce Edwards, over on the excellent Democracy Project, has put together a sizable wrap-up of the many threads involved in this story.

I'd also recommend searching out the financial deep dives into the Waipareira Trust that Phillip Crump as Cramner Writes has published on X, they are illuminating.  

Finally, before I get into my far less vital contribution, I would like to acknowledge the decade plus Herald investigative reporter Matt Nippert has spent covering the issues around what I will refer to regularly from now as John Tamihere's “fiefdom”. 

In an age of falling trust in the media, Nippert has often been the only person putting the hard questions to these organisations, and has never given up reporting on them even when the authorities empowered to investigate were too scared. I've been asked many times over the years why isn't anyone investigating these groups. Nippert has never stopped, he should be commended for this. 

I'm not here to rehash these people's excellent work, what I hope to contribute is some insider context into the murkiness around the various organisations that make up John Tamihere's fiefdom. How many grand and vital community institutions have been corrupted by his influence. 

This isn't a profile of John Tamihere - the man. Those are the type of format you use to cover complex anti-heroes, people who contain layers and contractions. 

Saul Goodman and Don Draper are complex anti-heroes. John Tamihere is not complex, there are no layers. He's pure Id. Simple aggression. 

In my opinion, John Tamihere is what would happen if Col Kurtz from Apocalypse Now (which I prefer over Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, so deal with it) was taken out of the context of the Vietnam War and dropped into a well respected indigenous NGO. 

That such a scenario has turned out the way it has, into a cult-like environment - a toxic one - with a cavalier attitude towards things like propriety, shouldn't surprise anyone. 

What has surprised so many people I have spoken with - journalists, politicians, investigators, John's most loyal staff - is how long this situation has been allowed to fester. 

It wasn't always like this, and that needs to be acknowledged. 

Prior to John Tamihere's arrival, the Waipareira Trust (the centre of what was to become Tamihere's vast network of interconnected organisations) was already a highly respected and vital part of West Auckland. 

Founded 1982, Te Whānau O Waipareira began as a noble, and successful, attempt to address the issue of Maori moving away from their ancestral homelands and into urban communities. This has led to Maori losing connection with their culture and with their traditional social support structures. 

When Tamihere entered the scene, he was entering a much loved institution that had already built a strong reputation for working with communities that local and central governments had often neglected. 

During his first stint as CEO, John grew the organisation's financial base and formalised a lot of internal structures to allow Waipareira to be an even more attractive prospect for government contracts to support neglected Maori communities. 

I have spoken to dozens of people who were involved with Waipareira during this time (1991-98) and each credited John with bringing a new level of professionalism and legal discipline. Ironic as that may seem now.  

Tamihere left for Parliament in 1999, taking with him a sizable leaving 'loan' that damaged both his political career and the credibility of Waipareira. 

This was the first public example of what would become a running issue when he returned - his perception that this organisation, and the many others that he would fold into the wider umbrella of interconnected organisations, existed because of him, therefore he could do with them as he pleases.  

This is the lie he tells himself, one I would implore you not to believe, and it is the cancer that has grown and poisoned many once beautiful charitable groups.

The community nurses and social workers who actually make up Wapareira and the many groups who receive Whanau Ora funding are amazing people who do really hard work with people in desperate need. 

This should not be a story about one man's narcissism, sadly it needs to be. 

Speaking of…

My first meeting with John was in 2016, I was fresh out of an interesting and unfulfilling time as a public servant in the health sector. 

I had mostly worked as a media handler and 'problem solver', when there was a coronial investigation into a worrying death in public health care, or a lawsuit against the public health system, and the media was sniffing around, I was sent in to quiet things down. 

It was just as depressing as it sounds. I needed a change. 

I was looking for something that would refuel my wairua (soul), a job that I could be proud of. This was the context I went into that first, and only, interview with ‘JT’. 

He spoke of the wonderful eco-system of charitable groups Te Pou Matakana (now the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency) funded, and of the role I would get to play - telling these stories and working with people who shared my desire to ‘do good'.  

I chose to believe him, even though I was aware of his somewhat sketchy past and the risk that I was being brought in for my background as a 'fixer’. 

I chose poorly. 

What became increasingly clear during my first week's working there was that Te Pou Matakana, the Waipareira Trust, Hapai Te Hauora, and all the other ‘brands’ under this umbrella existed only on paper. In practice, they were (and remain) all the same organisation. If you worked for one, you worked for all of them. 

There is sound business logic to this model. Pablo Escobar may be famous for his ill gotten billions and his bloody death, but his greatest accomplishment as a businessman was introducing the business strategy of vertical integration to the cocaine trade. He controlled each step his cocaine would take - from production, to warehousing, to local distribution, to global shipment, even down to street sales - ensuring profits stayed inside his business, and ensuring that he had ultimate control of everything.   

Like Pablo, John saw the logic in such a model. It meant he could outperform the likes of MSD and DHBs on a dollar-for-dollar basis, he could reduce waste and spread financial risk. It also meant he had outsized influence over everything. There were other chief executives, there were several elected boards, but behind all of them was John - He was the ultimate authority. 

By the time I arrived, there was already some hesitation by government agencies and politicians to be seen to be working too closely with John. 

This model gave him and them a level of plausible deniability around his involvement - Stats NZ want to get more Maori to respond to the census, but know they can't employ an organisation led by the infamous president of a political party to do so? Contract Te Pou Matakana/WOCA to do it. 

None of this is unknown by government agencies, in between telling journalists "nothing to see here" while working for the Director-General of Health I also developed PR strategies for the complex procurement processes that go into contracts between the Ministry of Health and community providers - including Wapareira. I was there, amongst accountants, lawyers, and doctors, to identify potential reputational risks and propose mitigations. 

It was immediately clear to me what both government agencies and these Tamihere umbrella groups were up to. They were applying a slight veneer of respectability to these contracts, but under the surface all the funding was going directly to John Tamihere Inc. You may have had a contract with WOCA, but the people doing the work could be from any one of a half dozen organisations and there was no line between where and who did what. 

I must point out that this was before Tamihere merged Te Pati Maori into this mix, but it is my understanding based on conversations I've had that they too are just as involved in everything that happens inside the rest of the fiefdom.  

My second insight when working for, on paper for Te Pou Matakana/WOCA but in reality for John himself, was that the rumours of his prickly and combative nature were understated. 

He is an almost cartoonishly cruel and hateful person. 

There are a lot of shows and movies about horrible bosses, including two called Horrible Bosses, but none of these fictional characters are as spiteful and vicious as John Tamihere is to his closest employees, friends, and family members - in many cases these are the same people.

I don't believe in good and evil - too reductive, too childish - but I have met people who are incapable of even a basic level of civility. 

I choose to look for the good in people, but in John I could find none. I lasted less than a year working inside the Tamihere fiefdom. 

During that time I did meet a lot of great people, people who actually embody the caring and love that Wapareira was founded on. It is because of those good people that I am writing this. They deserve better than all this. 

Since I left I have kept in touch with some of them who are still there. They speak of feeling like people don't understand the good that comes out of Whanau Ora, and Waipareira, Manurewa Marae and a dozen other organisations that I'd need an entire wall to map with red string like Charlie from Always Sunny trying to figure out where the mail goes. 

These people fear the day when John's avarice destroys really important social support services started by inspirational Maori leaders like Dame June Mariu and Dame June Temuranga Jackson - wahine of tremendous mana and vision whose legacies should be protected. 

What they accomplished, and why they fought so hard to create a place for Maori lost in urban sprawl, should not be lost amongst the debate around the shoddy leadership of a man who followed them but lacks their integrity. 

These wahine are national heroes who have been let down by John and ironically, given the context of why they created these organisations, by government officials. 

Sadly, the fiefdom exists because it has been allowed to exist. 

I've lost count of the amount of officials and 'regulators' I've spoken to about this structure and its issues who have said some variation of “yeah, there's definitely something here, but Tamihere is very litigious, and he has some of the best QCs/KCs in country on retainer. For us, it's not worth the fight.”

While the Charities Commission requested Tamihere to repay an interest-free loan he seemingly gave himself from Waipareira Trust funds, they have (currently) failed to find any other issues with the way John runs the Trust. Waipareira have retained tax-exempt status in spite of their pretty direct connections to a political party, and have arguably only been emboldened by this weak response - with Tamihere giving himself and his wife substantial pay rises in the aftermath. 

The Serious Fraud Office has been even more gutless, repeatedly failing to act, or even investigate. 

It is these bodies, and Tamihere himself, who I have the most contempt for. They have let down the heroes who built these worthy organisations. 

They have let down the people on the ground who perform the actual mahi, people who don't live in palatial mansions and play king. 

Most importantly, they have let down the people in communities like Manurewa and Ranui who need Whanau Ora support during our cost of living crisis. People who have been dealt a hard hand in life and are just trying to survive to see tomorrow. 

As stated previously, I haven't written this out of spite or because I bear some personal grudge towards John. I have written it to highlight the real people who are hurt and the legacies of good that are being undone by John Tamihere playing Pablo Escobar/Col Kurtz/King.

The mahi needs to come before all else. The people your charity serves need to come before all else. 

If John has any conscience, he will step down and allow his fiefdom to be unpicked - not destroyed, but returned to its previous state of independent parts. 

I have long feared that he is incapable of this level of self-reflection and integrity. I hope I am wrong.