Te Pāti Māori president and Waipareira chief executive John Tamihere during the 2023 election campaign. Photo / Mike Scott
Te Pāti Māori president and Waipareira chief executive John Tamihere during the 2023 election campaign. Photo / Mike Scott
Charity regulators have moved to deregister high-profile social services provider Waipareira, concluding a long-running investigation into its funding of chief executive John Tamihere’s political campaigns.
The decision follows a four-year investigation by Charities Services into Waipareira that has seen settlements reached and breached, accusations of racism, and CharitiesServices staff complain about bullying behaviour from Waipareira’s lawyers.
News of looming deregistration and the loss of its tax-free status broke in Waipareira’s own financial statements filed this week to the Charities Register, which end with a note stating: “On 23 September 2024, the trust received a formal notification from the Charities Registration Board (CRB) of its intention to make a decision to deregister the charitable entity Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust.”
The note went on to say the trust was “reviewing the notification, assessing the implications for its operations, and intends to respond to the notification by the set deadline provided of November 22”.
Waipareira's 2024 financial accounts reveal that regulators have moved to strip the social-service provider of charitable status.
Tamihere is both the chief executive of Waipareira and the president of Te Pāti Māori (TPM), and his charity’s funding of his political campaigns has been under investigation since 2019.
Tamihere declined to answer questions about this significant development, or what the consequences would be for Waipareira if deregistration were to occur.
His complete response to the Herald was: “Your needs are of no concern to us Māori.”
Tamihere has earlier signalled any decision to deregister would be challenged in the courts.
An unsigned statement from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) said Waipareira had filed an objection to the intention to deregister, and this was being considered by the CRB.
“The department cannot provide further information while this process is underway,” the statement said.
Charities Services has a long-held view, which has withstood legal challenges in the past, that charities are forbidden from endorsing or donating to political parties or campaigns.
Waipareira effectively made hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations to TPM’s 2020 election campaign and Tamihere’s own tilt for the Auckland mayoralty in 2019. The accounts also disclose a trust subsidiary provided $5486 in “messaging services” to TPM’s election campaign last year.
It is understood these related to mass text messages sent out to Waipareira contacts during the 2023 election campaign urging “Two ticks Te Pāti Māori”.
Txt messages sent out from Waipareira during the 2023 election campaign urged recipients to vote for Te Pāti Māori .
Charities Services is understood to also be looking into Waipareira’s hosting of TPM’s July 2023 election campaign launch at a large public Matariki concert.
Initially, Waipareira made donations directly to Tamihere’s campaigns, but after complaints and Charities Services investigations began, these were converted to interest-free, related-party loans made to their chief executive. These loans — totalling $385,307 — were finally repaid in May 2023.
Sue Barker, of Sue Barker Charities Law, who has long followed this protracted saga, welcomed the development.
“That’s really good news. If people are not complying with the law, and Charities Services does not take action, it brings the charitable sector into disrepute,” she said.
“Waipareira were given plenty of opportunity to bring themselves into compliance.”
Such a move would be the most significant charity deregistration decision in New Zealand history, and potentially trigger a landmark court case.
Previous deregistration decisions against Family First and Greenpeace, with the latter decision overturned on appeal, concerned political lobbying and ended up argued in the Supreme Court.
Compared to those two charities, Waipareira is vastly larger. It employs over 200 people in West Auckland and its accounts for the year to June 2024 record net assets of $104m, and annual revenues — largely from government social service, Whānau Ora, and health contracts — of $79m.
The effect of deregistration on these contracts is unclear.
The DIA statement said deregistration would see Waipareira revert to its previous status as a charitable trust, which faced no restrictions on political activity but came with tax consequences.
“The trust would also be able to continue its association with or support for political parties and candidates free from restrictions and obligations arising under the act. It may have tax implications for the trust, however this is a matter for Inland Revenue,” the statement said.
Charitable trusts face an income tax of 28%.
Charities law stipulates that deregistered charities need to distribute their assets to organisations that are registered or face a tax levied across accumulated assets. Based on Waipareira’s reported financial position, this one-off tax could amount to $30m.
The number of people classed as "key management personnel" at Waipareira nearly doubled over the 2024 financial year, depressing average executive pay.
A Herald survey of executive pay at large charities in New Zealand found Waipareira’s were the best-remunerated in the country — ahead of even giant universities Auckland and Victoria — with 13.3 full-time-equivalent key management personnel earning an average of $510,679.
The 2024 accounts show average executive pay at Waipareira has now dropped to $296,880, largely off the back of restructuring in which the number of people classed as key management personnel nearly doubled to 25.1.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.
