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September 29, 2022
Political donations part of Māori development plan
Adam Gifford
Posted On September 29, 2022
Download AudioMāori Party president and Waipareira head John Tamihere says Māori organisations have a right to fund political campaigns which will advance Māori interests.
Mr Tamihere is pushing back on stories the charities regulator was looking into loans and donations from Te Whanau o Waipareira and the National Urban Maori Authority to his 2019 campaign for the Auckland mayoralty and his run for Tamaki Makaurau in the 2020 general election.
He says the New Zealand Herald buried his right of reply, after giving front page treatment to its original story.
He says the constitutions of Waipareira and NUMA says they must advance Maori socioeconomic capacity.
“To do that we have to participate in the political narrative of this nation. To pretend that we can’t use Maori money to advance Maori interests politically is a totalitarian state. It would enslave Maori into shutting their shutting their mouths because they are brown and they are indigenous and then they have no voice,” Mr Tamihere says.
He says if Charities Services says he has broken any laws or rules, that will be challenged in court.
