Waipareira Trust wins legal point against Charities Board but fails to quash deregistration notice

John Tamihere has said media scrutiny of his charities' political donations and endorsements was 'racist' and a 'pogrom'. Photo / Peter de Graaf

The Waipareira Trust has successfully argued that the Charities Registration Board issued an illegal notice kick-starting the process of deregistration, but has failed in its bid to quash the notice and restart the administrative process from scratch.

A judicial review heard in the High Court at Wellington in May hinged on complaints from Waipareira that the Charities Registration Board (CRB) was improperly constituted when in September 2024 it signalled its intention to deregister the West Auckland social services charity.

That notice had followed a six-year period of tensions between charity regulators and Waipareira over hundreds of thousands of dollars of political donations made by the charity to its chief executive John Tamihere’s Auckland mayoral and general election campaigns with Te Pāti Māori.

Regulator Charities Services have long maintained charities are not allowed to donate to or endorse political parties or candidates.

The ruling by Justice Lisa Preston, issued late last week, avoided delving into the substance underlying the dispute.

“The intended decision notified the intention to remove Waipareira from the register on grounds which it is not necessary for present purposes to record, save as to note I am told Waipareira strongly disputes the basis for the intended decision,” Preston said.

There were three members of the CRB at the time the notice was issued, but the court heard Parliament had amended the Charities Act in July 2023 and increased its membership from three to five.

By December 2024 voluntary sector minister Louise Upston announced Roger Miller and Tarita Hutchison had joined the CRB’s three existing members, finally making a legal quorum.

Jonathan Orpin-Dowell, acting for Waipareira, said there was no reason to look beyond the plain meaning of the Charities Act amendments which required the board to have five members and did not specify the Minister of Internal Affairs was allowed discretion in having fewer.

Andrew Butler KC, acting for the CRB, argued the 2023 general election had delayed adding to the board to preserve the rights of an incoming government to make appointments, and in any event the issuing of the notice of intent would be followed by an upcoming hearing by the CRB where Waipareira could further argue its case.

Justice Preston agreed decisions made by a three-person CRB after the law changes were illegal: “I conclude the intended decision is invalid as ultra vires the act.”

But Justice Preston declined Waipareira’s application to quash the notice.

“I conclude there will be a sufficient opportunity for Waipareira to challenge the intended decision on the merits, before a properly constituted board.”

Even if the CRB decided to deregister following its own hearing, Waipareira could then also appeal to the Taxation and Charities Review Authority.

Requests for comment on the ruling sent to the CRB and Tamihere were not immediately answered.

Charities lawyer Sue Barker said reading the ruling was a real “wow” moment.

The short-staffed CRB had drawn some comment among charity law practitioners when new legislation was passed.

“I wondered at the time, what does this mean? If the law says you’ve got to have five members, you’ve got to have five,” she said.

Barker said despite winning on this narrow point of law, Waipareira appeared to have gained little from the exercise.

“Ultimately, it’s a pyrrhic victory. All it really does is delay and cause a lot of cost to charitable and taxpayer funds.”

Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.