Tamihere to eyeball caucus

Labour MP John Tamihere, with his children Rawinia (left) and Hauraki in West Auckland yesterday, says his Holocaust comments were taken out of context. Picture / Kenny Rodger

A defiant John Tamihere is resisting pressure to resign from the Labour Party and plans to fly to Wellington today to apologise to a caucus meeting of Labour MPs.

The move is certain to infuriate Prime Minister Helen Clark, who ordered the MP to take extended stress leave to reflect on his future.

But Mr Tamihere was buoyed last night with expressions of confidence from about 70 party members at a meeting of his Labour Electorate Committee at Nga Tapuwae Community Facility in Mangere.

Labour president Mike Williams, who also attended the meeting, is expected to accompany the MP today to the caucus, where Mr Tamihere wants to apologise to colleagues.

After the hour-long meeting last night Mr Williams said little, noting that he may have a quasi-judicial role in the future - a clear reference to disciplinary action that the party might take against the MP.

Asked if Mr Tamihere had his support, Mr Williams said: "I support all Labour MPs while they remain MPs."

Helen Clark on Sunday ordered Mr Tamihere to take extended stress leave after further revelations of derogatory comments made to Investigate magazine.

This time his targets were the Holocaust, women and a close colleague, MP Clayton Cosgrove.

Mr Tamihere was already on leave after the publication of an article which criticised his party for being anti-family and too heavily influenced by gays and unionists.

He also suggested that Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen pulled swifties on support parties without them realising it.

Mr Tamihere maintains he was having an off-the-record conversation with the magazine editor, Ian Wishart, and did not see a tape recorder on the restaurant table where they spoke over lunch.

Mr Wishart was angered by claims that he had duped Mr Tamihere into an interview and released unpublished excerpts from the tape, including the Holocaust comments, and references to women in powerful positions in New Zealand as "front-bums".

Helen Clark, who is due to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland next week, apologised to the Jewish community on behalf of the Labour Party, calling the comments offensive and unacceptable.

She put them down to Mr Tamihere being under "considerable stress" and said that by agreement he would not attend today's caucus, where he had planned to apologise for the first round of slurs.

Helen Clark and Dr Cullen, who stood by Mr Tamihere last week and implored him to apologise, now appear to have lost confidence in him.

It is clear they will not get the clean exit from politics they might be hoping for, and Helen Clark hinted the party may avoid or defer a fight with Mr Tamihere so close to an election.

"The Labour Party is very focused on a general election which is due within the next 5 1/2 months and the Labour Party isn't going to waste a lot of time diverting itself from its central purpose," she said yesterday.

Asked if the party was ready to face Mr Tamihere standing against Labour if it deselected him, she said: "I don't think we are at anything like that stage. The decision for Mr Tamihere is whether to embark on the long, slow and difficult road to redemption and a political career that leads somewhere or whether to say, 'This looks too tough for me'.

"I think that's an issue he needs to reflect on."

Mr Tamihere told the Herald yesterday his remarks on the Holocaust had been taken out of context. He wanted to walk into the caucus and clear things up.

He made the controversial comments during a discussion on Maori grievances in which he drew a parallel with the history of the Orakei Marae in Auckland's Okahu Bay.

Mr Tamihere said Ngati Whatua had also been left in a terrible state when its marae and some homes were destroyed by fire in 1952 after the Government evicted the inhabitants.

But despite that, it was one of the few groups to bury the issue and move on.

However, he said, some Maori Party members continued to raise the issue instead of dealing with the issues affecting Maori youth today.

"I'm sick and tired of that," said Mr Tamihere. "I used [the Holocaust] in that sense."

The MP telephoned high-profile Jewish community leader Mike Nathan on Saturday night.

"He wanted to forewarn us what was coming and that it had been taken out of context," Mr Nathan said. "It was now in the public arena and he wished to apologise."

Mr Nathan, who is on the Auckland Jewish Council executive, said the comments were disappointing.

Mr Tamihere acknowledged that calling women "front-bums" was offensive.

"It's West Auckland men's room talk. It wasn't meant to be in public."

It was not a question-and-answer interview, he said.

"It was just two blokes kicking a ball around at lunch."