Delamere's way: head over heels into strife

By TONY WALL

One hot day in 1974 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, a young Maori lad from Tauranga stunned the crowd when he sprinted towards the long jump pit and did a forward somersault before hitting the sand about 8m away.

Tuariki John Delamere had launched his career as it would continue - with dash, ingenuity and, finally, a fall to earth.

The latest chapter in his colourful life, which began on December 9, 1951, has the Prime Minister sacking him from the job of Minister of Immigration.

Back in 1974, his cheeky attempt at creating a new long-jumping technique ended with the somersault outlawed - but not before he had recorded the same distance as the Olympic champion.

Delamere's name and photograph first appear in Herald files in 1968, when he accepted a trophy for scoring the highest marks in school certificate for any Maori boy.

He won a sports bursary to the University of Washington, also studied at Long Island University, and later worked for the US Army out of West Point.

He competed in the 1974 Commonwealth Games at Christchurch, but as a professional athlete became embroiled in an argument with officials over his desire to regain amateur status.

In the 1980s the father-of-three's jobs included chief finance officer of Polynesian Airlines, regional director of Te Puni Kokiri and computer salesman.

He joined the National Party around 1989, standing unsuccessfully for its Te Atatu nomination in 1990 and causing a row over candidate selection.

During the 1990s he headed negotiations for the Whakatohea tribe in its compensation negotiations with the Crown.

But many members of the tribe were unhappy with the settlement offer and moved a motion of no confidence in his committee.

In 1996 Mr Delamere secured the New Zealand First candidacy for Te Tai Rawhiti, and beat Peter Tapsell by more than 4000 votes.

He was the first politician in almost 70 years to go straight into a cabinet post. He was made Associate Treasurer.

In 1997 he caused a Maori protocol row when he refused to sit with Helen Clark in the male-only section of a marae.

He described a ruse where his niece posed as a journalist to secure a tape recording of a Labour MP as "dumb and inappropriate."

When his son Jean-Paul was convicted of cannabis possession, Mr Delamere said marijuana should be decriminalised, while as new Associate Minister of Health he declared war on cigarettes, which had killed his own father.

In May 1998, he capped an unremarkable stint as Minister of Customs by conceding defeat in the war against odometer tampering, by making car dealers responsible for policing the trade.

August last year brought a new storm, this time after he was caught holding clandestine negotiations over a breakaway Maori party.

After Mr Peters was sacked by Jenny Shipley, he announced that his boss had been misleading the nation and urged his fellow NZ First MPs to support Mrs Shipley.

But Mr Delamere ended up with egg on his face when he was caught flirting with rejoining NZ First.

Despite this he picked up the Immigration portfolio, which was to bring more controversies.

In March he kicked out a German couple whose children were born here, publicly revealing their father's drug conviction.

In June he traded blows with the Deportation Review Tribunal over its decision to let a wife beater stay.

In September he announced migrants and refugees would be tested for Aids.

In the past few weeks, his treatment of asylum seekers on hunger strikes in Mt Eden Prison has brought more criticism.

Where to now for the bright young lad from Tauranga?