On a hiding to nothing

John Tamihere

Finally, thought John Tamihere, a good week.

After eight weeks of allegations, "The Boss", as he calls Prime Minister Helen Clark, fronted publicly alongside him to declare there was still a spot in her Cabinet for him.

At one stage, he told the Herald On Sunday last week, he was going to quit. Now he is waiting on the outcome of the Serious Fraud Office inquiry and looking forward to fighting the election next year.

"The SFO is easier because there's either criminality or not. I'm extraordinarily confident," he says.

It took a lot of anguish and agony for Mr Tamihere to reach last week. Ask about the progress of the assault, launched by Act leader Rodney Hide, and he can measure its evolution by day and date from memory. Being under question made each day pass painfully slowly.

He marks the lowest point being Mr Hide's appearance on the Holmes show. Mr Tamihere began watching, then began feeling helpless. He left his West Auckland home and went for a walk. "I was thinking about walking away (quitting Parliament) about the 28th of October. Thinking ... I don't deserve this and don't need it."

Supporters with cards, emails and letters kept him in.

Resigning as a minister on November 2 cost half his wage and a car. Mr Tamihere handed the keys of his car over at the airport and went home to become, he says, the first minister in the history of Parliament to sign his entire life over to an inquiry. The professional help he sought - lawyer and tax expert - cost him more than $100,000, although he lauds the quality of advice. "You can't put a price on your mana."

He says the worst aspect of the episode was knowing that someone at the Waipareira Trust had leaked the paperwork that set the allegations in motion. "The worst thing that can happen to a human being is treachery." He has identified those he believes responsible, and asked if he will take action, replies: "The community out here will do that for me."

Mr Hide, however, can't understand what all the crowing is about.

He said Mr Tamihere got a $195,000 "golden handshake" and didn't pay tax on it. And look, says Mr Hide, here's the Douglas White report. Mr Tamihere did get the money. And he didn't pay tax. "Everything I said has stacked up." That, he believes, is what matters to party members - and taxpayers.

While Mr Tamihere might have suffered two months of intense scrutiny, his accuser has suffered his own. "The hardest thing a party does is change leader. I think we've had a good year."

Six months after winning the job, Act is at 1 per cent in the polls, founder Sir Roger Douglas has walked and dumped MP Donna Awatere-Huata is still clinging to her seat. To satisfy party supporters, Mr Hide had to surrender much of his loved "perkbuster" role - although he took the mantle back fully to question Mr Tamihere's "golden handshake".

He said since becoming leader he has achieved the goals set. He has visited the party membership, then challenged the government to "keep them accountable".

He aims to take the party from the doldrums to repeat its 2002 polling of 7 per cent - a vote achieved with predecessor Richard Prebble at the helm. At the same time, Mr Hide is going to stand for the Epsom electorate, and sees Act as having at least three seats in the next few elections.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY