Tamihere John: General Debate 
Tamihere John: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19470] 
JOHN TAMIHERE (Labour—Tamaki Makaurau) 
: 
 This is the first opportunity I have had to address the House since making a substantive personal statement on 3 November 2004 and since resigning my ministerial warrants. That personal statement pre-empted the findings of the White inquiry and my clearance by the Serious Fraud Office and it has proven to be true. Firstly I thank the rank-and-file Kiwis in the heartland who reserved their judgment and who were extraordinarily kind and fair to me but particularly to Awerangi and the family. Secondly I acknowledge the support and commitment of my caucus colleagues in this House over this period. It is important in our democracy that politicians are placed under significant scrutiny and that the media ask the hard questions about politicians’ conduct. The media has a right to ask searching questions to opine on illegality or wrongdoing and to enter the grey zone where they can actually make news on values and issues of standards ethics and morality. That is important and I have withstood that intense scrutiny. A new level of accountability has been set for MPs and I welcome that. 
I now want to pose questions of my own to the media particularly concentrating on the very cosy and close relationship between Duncan Garner at TV3 and his soulmate Rodney Philip Hide. I do that as a messenger so I say to my dear media colleagues they should not shoot the messenger but should listen to the message. There is no doubt that Rodney Philip Hide and Duncan Garner were called into the Waipareira Trust as early as August 2004 to help shape frame and put together the architecture for the hatchet job that was released in the House on 14 October or thereabouts of 2004. The main architect in bringing them together at the Waipareira Trust was Duncan Garner’s uncle known as Bruce Silver Bryant the chief financial adviser at the Waipareira Trust. Now to be fair to Duncan Garner Mr Bryant is actually the uncle of his de facto wife Mihingarangi Forbes. She works for TV3 on  
20/20 
. Mr Bryant contacted Duncan Garner to provide him with the exclusive scoop. Duncan Garner did not investigate it; he did not do anything. 
My questions are these: did Duncan Garner and Rodney Hide know that Bruce Silver Bryant was investigated for taking backhanders and inducements in an insurance scam? Did they know that the same Bruce Silver Bryant was investigated for wrongfully signing off financial audits in a multimillion-dollar insurance collapse? That has all been reported in the  
Independent  
business newspaper. Did they know when the ACT party was attacking Te Whare Wananga o Aotearoa that Bruce Silver Bryant was the main financial adviser and architect to Rongo Wetere in the wananga? Did they know that “uncle” Bruce Bryant designed the scheme to move $7 million from the wananga to a company owned by his son who was married to Rongo Wetere’s daughter? Did they know that Bruce Bryant designed the company known as Oma Investments which the ACT party attacked? And did they know that Bruce Bryant resigned from Oma Investments only this month—March 2005? Why did Duncan Garner and Rodney Hide protect “uncle” Bruce Bryant but attack Mr Wetere? 
It is one thing for the media to report the news but it is another thing when Duncan Garner his uncle Bruce Silver Bryant and Rodney Hide get together to manufacture the news solely for rating purposes. The toll that others have had to pay for that behaviour is significant. The human carnage is devastating. The questions are: did Duncan Garner and Rodney Hide know that Reg Ratahi was an Inland Revenue Department tax inspector for 18 years did they know that Bruce Bryant holds himself out to be a tax specialist and did they know that Mr Bryant and Mr Ratahi oversaw payments that they knew they were responsible for the tax on? Well we know that a decent journalist called Audrey Young from the  
New Zealand Herald 
 7 days into the hatchet job produced an account dated 21 October 2004 entitled “The case for and against John Tamihere”. A journalist who was just asking some simple questions received the right answers and the White inquiry reached the same conclusions. The question now is: did Duncan Garner and Rodney Hide accept and know that information? No they continued on day after day making it up. 
Now TV3 obviously does not pay very well because—here is the question—I ask whether Duncan Garner has an independent media consultancy business. If so who are its clients and are they associated with Rodney Hide? The Parliamentary Library will provide evidence that Duncan Garner has Rodney Hide rating at 2 percent to 3 percent in the polls and that he has an 80 percent disapproval rating amongst Kiwis yet he gets the lion’s share of television time on TV3. That is a very cosy relationship. It is not the business of the press to manufacture make up frame or put together the architecture. It is not the business of Duncan Garner and TV3 to collude and conspire with Rodney Philip Hide. 
A lot of people would say that one should not have a go at the media because they have thousands and thousands of tonnes of ink. Rodney Hide knows all about Oscar Wilde so he will know all about that. But the reality is that members on the Government side of the House want to be given a fair go. They do not want the manufacturing of the news and the conspiracy that has occurred with Bruce Bryant and Rodney Philip Hide. So I would say to Duncan Garner that he should give them a fair go or get a real job. 
I seek leave to table the article that Audrey Young penned 7 days after the hatchet job began. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I seek leave to table a large range of articles printed in the  
Independent 
 business newspaper authored by Jenni McManus and Gareth Vaughan indicating that Bruce Silver Bryant is quite a dodgy bloke. 
Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.