Tamihere seeks leave while payout probed

12.20pm

UPDATE - Cabinet Minister John Tamihere has asked to go on leave while he is investigated over a $195,000 golden handshake from a West Auckland Maori Trust.

The maverick MP is caught up in allegations tax was not paid on a settlement he got from the Waipareira Trust where he was chief executive for 10 years.

He told a news conference today he will write to Prime Minister Helen Clark asking for leave while he is investigated over the allegations.

He said he regretted asking for leave and he also regretted that some of his own people had turned against him.

He said in 2000 when he was investigated by five organisations -- the Serious Fraud Office, police, Audit Department, Prime Minister's department and a Maori Affairs select committee -- the information released today was known then and was in the hands of NZ First and the Act party.

"One has to do the honourable thing when part of the Labour government.

"The honourable thing when allegations are made against you ... you have to seek leave."

Mike Williams, the Labour Party president, told reporters that Mr Tamihere's application for leave would mean that he would step down from cabinet but still be in Parliament.

In a voice shaking with emotion Mr Tamihere said he regretted the leave request to Helen Clark and he also regretted some actions of the Waipareira Trust.

"It is regretful that the process our whanu put in place for an audit review to bring professionalism and honesty back into the joint hasn't worked for us."

Mr Tamihere said he would give the same commitment now as he gave Helen Clark in 2000.

"I have done nothing that would bring shame on my family or on you," he said to elders in the Waipareira Trust rooms at Henderson today.

He said any media questions or "rubbish to drop on me, I invite you to give to the police, I invite you to give it to the Serious Fraud Office, I invite you to give it to the Prime Minister, or whoever is going to inquire into me."

He refused to answer a question from NZPA about how upset he was before Mr Williams and Labour MP Damien O'Connor stepped forward and said Mr Tamihere had nothing more to say.

A spokeswoman for acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen said he welcomed Mr Tamihere's decision to take leave.


Helen Clark, out of the country on an overseas trip, ordered urgent inquiries as soon as she heard of the reports.

Mr Cullen said last night that an independent inquiry would be held into the tax allegations.

Standing him down was understood to be one of the options being considered last night.

Mr Tamihere left his job as chief executive of the Waipareira Trust in 1999 to become an MP.

Documents provided to the media stated the trust -- which received public funding to provide social services for urban Maori -- agreed to give him a $195,000 payout when he left.

One document said the $195,000 figure was a gross amount but Mr Tamihere last night said it was a "net" figure.

If it was found that Mr Tamihere had avoided paying tax, it would be a resignation offence.

The amount was approved by the board at its meeting of April 18, 1999, and reconsidered and approved by the board at its meeting of May 30, 2000.

Mr Tamihere said in 1999 that he would not accept a payout.

He told the New Zealand Herald last night that he was prepared to defend any allegations against him.

"I'll get evidence out when I am ready.

"This is a cover-up to deflect attention away from the activities of the trust's management. I have nothing to hide."

The amount was a net figure and there was never any talk of it being a gross amount.

Mr Tamihere said he needed to go through his records to find out exactly how much the exit payment was, and to confirm he had acknowledged it in his 2000 tax return.

ACT leader Rodney Hide released a letter from then trust chief executive Ian Mackintosh dated August 1, 2000.

It stated that on May 3, 1999 the secretary of the trust board had written to Mr Tamihere "confirming the board's agreement to pay you an amount totalling $195,000".

"We understand this to be a gross amount," the letter said.

The trust deducted some money from the payout after it bankrolled some of Mr Tamihere's election campaign.

Payments deducted included $30,731 for Mr Tamihere's salary from July to October 1999 -- a period of time which saw Mr Tamihere campaigning for the general election in November that year and after he had finished working for the trust in August.

Also deducted was $18,648 which the trust had paid in "election campaign expenses" and a bonus payment of $10,000 net ($15,912 gross) paid to Mr Tamihere on June 26, 2000.

Mr Mackintosh said in the letter that after the deductions, "a gross balance" of $129,709 was due to Mr Tamihere.

Mr Tamihere confirmed to TV3 the trust had paid his salary up until the election as well as election expenses.

"Was it right? Ask the trust board in terms of their strategy in promoting me to go there."

He was "absolutely" comfortable with that "because somebody's got to pay for my mortgage and my family".

In 1999, the year Mr Tamihere was elected to Parliament, he said he had not asked for a payout, nor was he accepting one.

At the time, there had been a series of opposition attacks on the Government over golden handshakes to board members and managers in the public sector.

Mr Tamihere told TV3 last night he had said he would not accept a payout because high on the public's mind at the time was the issue of golden handshakes.

It would have put "all the pressure" on to the trust, which did not deserve it, he said.

TV3 reported that Mr Tamihere got the money in 2001, when he was a backbencher.

In the 2000 letter, Mr Mackintosh apologised for the delay in concluding arrangements related to Mr Tamihere's "departure package from the trust".

The trust had said it would make the payment when it had the funds available.

Mr Tamihere said the payout was a "net" payment and that he, and Reg Ratahi -- the current chief executive and former board member -- had known that.

"He (Mr Ratahi) knew that it was net. He knew and I knew it was net."

Lloyd Millar, personal assistant to Mr Ratahi, told NZPA the payout had been included in trust reports, but he could not comment on the details.

Mr Hide said in a statement that despite Mr Tamihere telling media he would refuse a payout, taxpayers' money that was supposed to go to benefit the poor and downtrodden was spent on Mr Tamihere's campaign for the Labour Party, to pay for his election expenses and for a "golden handshake" once he was an MP.

"The tough question is whether Mr Tamihere paid tax on the money when he received it," Mr Hide said.




- NZPA