Tamihere's out, but says he's not down

John Tamihere

John Tamihere has enjoyed years of being feted as the future of Maoridom.

He has been voted New Zealander of the Year by North & South magazine and Man of the Year by Metro magazine.

The young lawyer from West Auckland appeared to have everything needed to be a success; bright and charming, intelligent and handsome.

He took the Waipareira Trust from a small and struggling organisation to a critical feature of his home turf with hundreds of staff handling millions of dollars.

But every time Tamihere appears close to ascendancy, he stumbles and falls. It appeared last night that he had lost the close race of Tamaki Makaurau, after taking a gamble and not taking a place on the Labour Party list.

Early in the evening, at Alexandra Park Racecourse, he admitted he was not confident. "I'm looking at this with anxiety." Asked if he was conceding defeat, he said: "In a way".

Asked whose fault it was, he laughed: "It was me. I have no regrets not being on the party list. I set out to win the seat and it doesn't look that way so the fault comes back to me. Good luck to Pita Sharples. I don't think the Maori Party will hold up - it may be just a one off, who knows."

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia last night said Tamihere's exit from Parliament was a big loss to New Zealand and Maoridom.

Speaking at her home marae in Wanganui, Ms Turia said: "I'm sad to see him go."

She believed he had made a "huge and positive contribution to West Auckland" and was one of the people within Labour who had shown leadership: "He had the ability to lead New Zealand."

Ms Turia said Maori leaders like Tamihere and Winston Peters were hugely important to Maori and were needed in Parliament.

However, it was not exactly an easy road for the colourful MP.

In 1999, he featured in election year headlines when he revealed he had been accused of rape two years earlier. The allegations weren't made to police.

A year later, Prime Minister Helen Clark sought assurances from, then stood by, Tamihere, after a political onslaught over his time as Waipareira Trust chief executive.

He promised there was nothing that would bring into disrepute "his family, himself, the Labour Party or the Government".

For the two years following, Tamihere was the model of a striving MP and then minister. He had a determination to work hard and passion for the job, and was talked of as the nation's first Maori prime minister.

As his popularity grew, it seemed as if Tamihere felt it gave freedom to espouse views contrary to Government feeling. Then, as opponents scoured his past for weakness, he had to admit being discharged without conviction in 1995 after admitting to forgery. And there were three drink-driving convictions and six speeding tickets from his ministerial car.

Then Tamihere launched into a year which showed him as the great survivor of New Zealand politics.

Almost immediately after showing his leader great personal loyalty in standing by Labour over the Foreshore and Seabed Bill, he became its greatest headache, making offensive remarks about colleagues in an interview.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY