Ousted Delamere has little time for regrets

By Brian Rudman

Dumped Immigration Minister Tuariki Delamere, defeated at the polls last Saturday after one controversial term in Parliament, is not one for regrets.

No lost sleep here over his decision to depart New Zealand First in August 1998 or about supporting the detention of asylum-seekers in Mt Eden Prison. There is one thing, however, he would like to do differently if he had a second chance. He volunteers it without hesitation.

It is to be able to vote for Jim Anderton's August 1997 bill seeking posthumous recognition for the gallantry of Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone at Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli. "It's a thing that will stick in my mind. I felt really dirty that night."

Delamere, who was at the time seeking a posthumous Victoria Cross for a Second World War hero, Lance Sergeant Haane Manahi, spoke in favour of Anderton's bill. He says many Government MPs supported it but they didn't vote for it.

"It wasn't that we didn't think it was a good bill but it was Jim Anderton's bill and the word came down we were not to vote for it.

"If there's one thing I despise about Parliament it's that sort of attitude."

He has no second thought, though, about deserting New Zealand First. "After I left I felt good. By the end Winston Peters was running things to get out of Government. We'd made our bed and in the interests of the country we should have done our best by it and not come up with every little excuse he could find to try to get himself thrown out.

"Winston saw the writing on the wall. He had to be in opposition to have any chance and I take my hat off to him. He's one of the world's great survivors."

In reality, doffing his hat to his former leader will be difficult. Delamere says not a word has been exchanged between them since the day he jumped ship. "I've tried but Winston won't even acknowledge I exist."

Three years ago Delamere was swept into Parliament with a majority of 4215 over long-term incumbent for the seat of Te Tai Rawhiti, Speaker Sir Peter Tapsell. Last weekend he scraped together just 2860 votes. The defeat was hardly a surprise. "We lost our seats three years ago when we did the deal with National."

Out of Parliament, Delamere is still pushing the controversial residency scheme that got him sacked as Immigration Minister on the eve of election day.

Against the advice of his departmental officials and the instructions of Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, Delamere approved residency for 21 Chinese investors on the condition that they invested between $400,000 and $600,000 in Maori-owned land, Maori-owned businesses or in specified areas of provincial New Zealand.

Shipley said the deal was "repugnant" and created new policy without going through the Cabinet process. Delamere said he was just exercising his discretionary powers as minister.

He concedes now he was "pushing the envelope" but knew it was too late to get the scheme through the Cabinet process before the election.

"We sat there for three years talking about what we were going to do for certain areas of New Zealand and by and large we hadn't done anything. Here was an opportunity to create a pilot scheme as an exception to policy to show yes, this would work."

Why hadn't he pursued it two years previously? "I wish I had. I'd like to take credit for thinking of it but I didn't." The idea was first put to him, over dinner in September at the time of the Apec Conference, by an Auckland-based Chinese man who is now a New Zealand entrepreneur.

A month later, Hawkes Bay orchardist Wi Huata and immigration consultants Norman Hung and Raymond Ho proposed a similar scheme. They discussed it further with the minister at the beginning of November. Huata had definite projects involved, including establishing vineyards on the East Coast. Consultants, Price Waterhouse, prepared a proposal on Huata's behalf.

Delamere now hopes the new government will pursue the idea. He says the present policy where you have to bring in $1 million to $5 million - depending on your age - and keep it here for two years until you gain citizenship "doesn't do a heck of a lot for New Zealand."

"You can put it in the Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank in New Zealand who will immediately re-export it out overseas to invest." After citizenship is granted, there is no requirement for the new citizen to retain the investment in New Zealand.

He says "everyone bemoans the fact that all that tens of thousands of hectares of Maori land does is grow gorse and some other green stuff which is quite profitable, I'm told" because banks won't lend on the multiply-owned land.

His vision was that the immigrant investors would not just be passive investors, but active partners, creating jobs in rural New Zealand for Maori and Pakeha. "If we can get money invested actively in some of the under-performing areas of our economy and the trade off is a lower threshold, that's got to be hugely beneficial."

Delamere also stands by the detention in prison of 16 asylum-seekers from Pakistan, India and Iran, despite Justice Fisher's criticism of the policy earlier this week.

"The intention of Parliament when the law was passed earlier this year was that these sorts of people would be detained until their status could be determined. If they were refugees they can stay, if they're not you're out of here as quickly as possible.

"The difficulty is we get 3000 people like that a year coming in. Once you start being seen as an easy touch you'll see the numbers go up dramatically."

He said the bulk of the asylum-seekers came through Fiji, where they were under no threat, then before arriving here they destroyed all their papers.

He said if you were going to let people jump the queue, then why have immigration rules at all.

Delamere made an unannounced visit to Mt Eden Prison during the asylum-seekers' hunger strike to check for himself on their condition.

"I looked through the peephole door when I got there and these guys were all sitting and talking - some were walking around. When I walked in a couple of them, as soon as they saw my suit, grabbed hold of themselves and sort of collapsed. In the case of some it was a big act as far as I was concerned."

He says at one stage during the hunger strike, two were close to needing to go on drips, but by the time he visited, "they were all taking nourishment." He said this was revealed in the daily urine samples taken from them. "They certainly weren't ready to run a marathon, but none of them was in any danger."

He said the guards had never seen them eat the meals provided three times a day, "but they noticed there were always little bits missing. The urine tests backed this up. And that is good. No one wants anyone to die in the prison.

"People say these guys weren't guilty of anything. Yes they were, they were guilty of entering New Zealand illegally."

He is concerned about the repercussions of their being released. "The message will go out overseas now, because there is a huge trade in moving people around."

Should there be somewhere other than Mt Eden Prison to detain them in. "I'm not sure the taxpayer wants to go out and build a semi-motel unit somewhere for these people."

Looking back, his biggest disappointment was "we had an opportunity to bring Maori and Pakeha together like never before but it didn't work out that way.

The biggest problem with New Zealand First, it never got past being a personality cult. I mean if Jenny or Helen get run over by a bus tomorrow the party machines will move on whereas New Zealand First is Winston Peters. Take Winston out and there is nothing."

Delamere is off to California for Christmas to visit his wife's relatives. Then it's back home to become an immigration consultant.

Any plans to return to politics. "I wouldn't rule it out," he says as his wife calls out a loud "No."