Cosgrove Clayton: Urgent Debates — Member for TamakiMakaurau—Standing Down as Minister 
Cosgrove Clayton: Urgent Debates — Member for TamakiMakaurau—Standing Down as Minister 
[Volume:621;Page:16247] 
CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 There can be no more serious allegations than the ones raised in this House today and that is why this Government has moved swiftly to initiate a high-level inquiry. At the same time though we have to acknowledge that Mr Tamihere’s years at the Waipareira Trust were a great success story. Here are the facts. Mr Tamihere started with a 12-employee organisation with a turnover of half a million dollars. He finished with over 200 employees and a turnover of $8 million. That member over there Mr Rodney Hide has never run a business—could not run bathwater—in his life. With the organisation building so quickly and so strongly were all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed? The answer is no. But few organisations with such a remarkable growth record would be able to withstand the scrutiny that Mr Tamihere has been exposed to. 
What we have seen in this House today and in the last week is a hatchet job of awesome proportions. It has brought together three vengeful groups: the trustees and staff of the Waipareira Trust; Maori Party activists—Mr Sharples has started his election campaign—and of course the leader of the ACT party Rodney Philip Hide the only by his own admission honest man in Parliament. 
The reason that John Tamihere has been attacked from all sides is quite simple: because it was he who called for greater accountability and transparency at the Waipareira Trust. That is something I would have thought the self-confessed great scambuster Mr Hide would support. For a number of years trustees and beneficiaries including Mr Tamihere have voiced concerns about the trust but those concerns have never been answered by a clique of managers and trustees in that trust. The concerns included the possibility of mortgagee sale proceedings; mezzanine finances being sought to prop up the trust’s trading; losses at its call centre in the order of $3 million and over; and the sale of major assets. These and other unanswered questions led to a special general meeting on 27 July this year. The meeting appointed an audit committee made up of John Tamihere; AiriniTukerangi; Ricky Houghton the treasurer; and Mr Joseph Waru. The audit committee was tasked with instructing Deloitte to conduct an audit and review. 
The process adopted for this was highly unusual. Despite Mr Tamihere being elected to the audit committee he was not allowed access to any of the work in progress. He was not questioned as part of the work. He was not given the opportunity to respond to any of the draft findings. In fact he still has not received an official copy of the report. [ 
Interruption 
] The fact is that member opposite does not have the gift of the gab; he has the “gift of the Gibbs”! I think it is called Alan Gibbs and we will get to that soon. The facts are that no audit and review ever took place. The media have called it an audit. Mr Hide has called it an audit. The Waipareira Trust board has purported to release an audit and review statement. That is an absolute fabrication. Deloitte itself indicated in its opening comments on page 1: “Because the procedures enumerated within the attached report do not constitute either an audit or review we do not express any assurance on any financial information relating to the items in the terms of reference of this engagement.” 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: Mr Hide didn’t refer to that. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Mr Hide never referred to that. It is also clear that no real examination took place and I quote from the report itself: “This report was compiled on the basis of information gathered by trust employees and the contract accountant Mr B Bryant along with inquiry and interviews with certain people involved in the trust board’s governance and management and based on reports and documentation supplied or cited by Deloitte.” The guts of Mr Tamihere’s problem is that the people who were under investigation in the audit were the only people who were asked to supply information to it. No one else was questioned. No one else who raised complaints or concerns had a chance to respond. 
What kind of dodgy report is that? The reality is that the process was hijacked to ensure that the focus rather than being on problems facing the trust was on Mr Tamihere. In simple terms that is called payback. To further ensure that no one took any notice of the real issue of malfeasance in the trust just a few days before the report was released five trustees were sacked and three senior workers were removed—all in the same week. There are some serious questions that need to be answered by Deloitte relating to its conduct in the matter. There is also a question of whether as the auditor for the trust for the last 3 years Deloitte was ever in a position to properly accept the job. 
A gang of three was formed at the trust: the treasurer a triple bankrupt Ricky Houghton; the chief executive officer RegRatahi; and the chief financial officer Bruce Bryant. The members of that gang of three have collaborated and colluded to ensure that they cover their tracks and to make sure that there is no accountability at the trust. That is the calibre of person that that member over there Mr Hide the scambuster relies on for his so-called evidence. 
The documentation relied on by Mr Tamihere’s accusers is wrong in a number of respects and evidence provided to the inquiry will determine that. Time does not allow me to identify all of the aspects other than to say the following. It is a fact that the current chief executive officer Mr Ratahi received a major bonus package of over $60000 when he moved from being health manager at the trust. That was not disclosed. In fact Mr Ratahi’s salary has never been disclosed at all neither in the report nor to the trustees. It is a fact that the former chief executive officer for 9 months Mr Mackintosh was also paid a major package of at least $60000 for leaving. That also was not disclosed. Only Mr Tamihere’s details were disclosed and in my view the inquiry will show that those details were wrong. There are more flaws and falsehoods but I will stop there. There is enough evidence even for TV3 and all the rest of the media to have a look at except that some in the media do not want to focus on it. 
We also know that contrary to the constitution the current chief executive officer Mr Ratahi provided a letter to the chair of the audit committee Mr Joseph Waru a trustee giving him employment through the back door and buying his support in the oversight of the dodgy so-called audit and review report. Members should work that one out! Again certain members of the media did not wish to focus on that element and that is because the report is fashioned in a remarkable “Hide-ish” type of way so that it provides the reader with quotable information about Mr Tamihere—who was never meant to be the focus of the review—while of course at the same time obscuring negative findings about the current management of the trust. I have to say that the smell of the political sewer reeks around the report. 
We know that Mr Hide has been working in collusion with the gang of three since August 2 this year. When the heat was put on the gang of three through an audit commissioned on 27 July less than a week had gone by before the gang of three was negotiating and colluding with Mr Hide to become the gang of four. Why did those people do that? There can be only one explanation: to cover their own tracks. What started as a search for accountability and integrity at the trust has highlighted an absolute lack of them. For instance for a chartered accountant working for an organisation it should be unthinkable to allow an outside person—friend or enemy—to trawl through its accounts. Yet Mr Hide has for 2 solid months worked his fingers to the bone with the trust on this issue. He has sat in the accounts office working his fingers to the bone to do over Mr Tamihere. That is an unforgivable breach by that chartered accountant the consequences of which I believe are yet to be visited on Mr Bryant. 
Little did the members of the gang of three realise or know what would happen when they got into bed with a creature like Rodney Philip Hide. But it is important for the people— 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No the member cannot refer to a member of Parliament in that way. He will withdraw that remark. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I should withdraw what Madam Speaker? 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The remark he made about the member being a “creature”. Please withdraw it. 
CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I withdraw. But it is important for the record to be put straight and for the people of west Auckland and of New Zealand to know that Mr Tamihere has been the subject of a well-planned and well-orchestrated witch-hunt and jack-up. I say to one of our members that people in glass houses should not throw stones. I note with interest that Michael Cullen asked Mr Hide whether he had ever had money from outside. I remember that during the pecuniary interest debate I asked Mr Hide that question. It is not an offence or a breach of the Standing Orders if somebody who wants to go into Parliament says that the salary of $120000 or whatever just is not enough and somebody else says he or she will give that person $50000 a year. It would be a breach only if the member were motivated to action as a result of that payment. We know that Mr Hide worked for Gilt-Edged Securities for 3 years and that it was a front to set up the ACT party. We know that Mr Alan Gibbs his sort of surrogate father funded that and paid Mr Hide. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.