Tuku wades in again – same result?

16 comments on “Tuku wades in again – same result? ”

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1. dave brown 1

   8 February 2011 at 11:00 pm

   It stinks just like Tuku’s underpants.
   • Bored 1.1

     9 February 2011 at 6:56 am

     You beat me to it, I was wondering who was paying for them now?
2. ianmac 2

   8 February 2011 at 11:30 pm

   Not only Tuku should be reined in. So should that self opinionated Gower. His spin is second only to the Key lot.
   And conflict of interest anyone?
   ” Mr Morgan is one of Maoridom’s cool commercial heads; he heads the iwi leadership group which represents over 50 tribes and has a direct line to the Prime Minister.”
   This elite group may not speak for the huge number of Maori unemployed
3. Rex Widerstrom 3

   9 February 2011 at 4:13 am

   Tuku Morgan will wade into a lot of places if given a chance, like profiting from the fact half NZ’s prison populatioare Maori as opposed to spending money to reduce it.

   Note he’s not quoted or even mentioned in this Te Karere piece, there’s just a brief few seconds where you see him listening to G4S, aka Wackenhutt, aka the company who though it okay to roast an Aboriginal man to death and have wriggled for three years trying to avoid responsibility. Very low key when he wants to be.

   But I bet they laid on some top quality kai and a five star hotel room for Tuku.
4. toad 4

   9 February 2011 at 8:15 am

   For those who have forgotten or are too young, here is a brief history (pun intended) of the “Tuku’s underpants” affair:

   May 96 – ATN begins transmission
   Aotearoa Television Network, an experimental Maori television station broadcasting to the Auckland area goes to air with $8,000,000 of taxpayer funding, around $500 per viewer. The reported peak evening audience is 7-16,000 people.

   One of the four founding directors of ATN, Morgan is later reported to have received over $18,000 each month in Director’s fees.

   July 96 – Vote Tuku
   Tuku Morgan stands for parliament as the New Zealand First Te Tai Hauauru candidate. The party’s main election platforms are integrity, honesty and accountability. Before the election Morgan claims he will provide a better voice for Maori. “They want accountability.”

   August 96 – Goodbye ATN
   With the election looming, Tuku resigns his ATN directorship. Or does he? Morgan will later offer varying accounts of his resignation date/s.

   September 96 – The boys go shopping
   Tuku Morgan and fellow ATN director Morehu McDonald go shopping. Between July and September Morgan spends $8,200 of ATN (taxpayers’) money on clothing. $4,000 of this is on September 30th, a month after his “resignation” from ATN.

   Sept – Nov 96
   During these three months Tuku Morgan receives a total of $56,250 in directors fees from ATN after resigning as a director of that company.

   12 October 96 – T.M., M.P.
   Tukoroirangi Morgan is elected to parliament in New Zealand’s first MMP (Mixed Member Proportional) elections with a majority of 4,961. No party has a clear majority and protracted coalition negotiations begin between the major parties.

   16 October 96 – Tuku meets Mickey
   Tuku and some members of his family enjoy a trip to London flying business class, staying in expensive hotels and stopping off at Disneyland on the way. The trip is paid for by ATN and costs $11,739.

   November 96 – Where does the money go?
   ATN applies to Te Mangai Paho (the funding agency for Maori broadcasting) for a further $4m of taxpayer funding.

   December 96 – Hey Bro – we are the government!
   A coalition deal is agreed between Morgan’s NZ First Party and the National Party (the previous government). The deal gives NZ First 9 seats in cabinet and a good deal more power than their 17 (out of a total of 120) parliamentary seats represent.

   27 January 97 – $4m for ATN
   The government announces a further $4m of taxpayer funding will be provided to keep ATN broadcasting till the end of June. Half of this will come from the consolidated fund (taxpayers), the balance from New Zealand On Air (taxpayers). This will represent a further subsidy of $250 per ATN viewer (or 44,944 pairs of underpants for Tuku).

   31 January 97 – Pump up that price
   The first Aotearoa Television scandal breaks. It is reported that the equipment at ATN was bought for $800,000 by a company called Pumanawa, then onsold to ATN for $1,200,000. A weird little agreement between the companies states that this price is to double once ATN receives the expected $4m of additional government funding.

   By a strange coincidence, the directors of Pumanawa Holdings were exactly the same people who were directors of ATN. This includes Morgan and McDonald.

   4 February 97 – UndieGate
   Another ATN scandal is made public. Receipts from Morgan and McDonald’s spending spree are made public, as is the revelation that Morgan spent $89 on a pair of underpants. This incident is later referred to by commentators as UndieGate. McDonald defends the spending claiming that the money is an allowance for “on-air” presenters.

   Morgan’s spending of $4,000 of taxpayers money a month after resigning from ATN arouses public anger. NZ First leader Winston Peters criticises the clothing store for invading Morgan’s privacy and attacks the media for their lack of integrity in reporting the story. Cartoonists throughout the country have a field day.

   This guy has been a rorter of Double Dipton proportions from way back. It astounds me that Tainui have elevated him to a position of such responsibility. It doesn’t astound me that he’s advocating the sale of public asssets (no doubt, like Michael Fay in the 1980s to corporate interests associated with himself). Nor does it astound me that he wants rid of Hone Harawira, who stands up for ordinary Maori rather than personal agrandisement and corporate interests.
   • Bill 4.1

     9 February 2011 at 9:54 am

     Thanks for the informative background Toad. All I could ever remember about the guy and ATN was the msm fetish over his underpants. (Methinks that the comment should be added to, to provide more of a hook into current events, and be put up as a post.)
     • Rex Widerstrom 4.1.1

       9 February 2011 at 4:28 pm

       I second that (both the thanks and the suggestion this be a post).
     • toad 4.1.2

       9 February 2011 at 9:12 pm

       Bill, happy for you to put it up as a post.

       Although I don’t deserve much credit for it, other than doing a google search on the basis of my recollection there was some things very dodgy about Tuku than rorting his purchase of a pair of underpants.

       We get stuck into Nat MPs and transnational corporates Execs here for rorts.

       But Morgan is worse than most of them – let us not be frightened of challenging him for fear of being labeled racist.

       A rort is a rort, whoever perpetrates it, and whatever their ethnicity! This guy has a documented history of being a scumbag rorter, and Tainui still allow him to hold an extremely senior position. We need to challenge that.

       Time to either make him accountable or give him the boot, imo.
5. pollywog 5

   9 February 2011 at 8:38 am

   Tainui need to raise up and kick this chump to the kerb…
6. g says 6

   9 February 2011 at 8:42 am

   everybody sing along…
   we are the knights of the brown table
   we spend whenever able …
   (apologies to monty python)
7. Te Taou 7

   9 February 2011 at 11:45 am

   Tuku Morgan is behind the Tainui claim to the Waitakere ranges, a claim based on pre 1840 occupation. Ngati Whatua Runanga rejects the claim, but Tuku has succeeded in gaining support from Ngati Whatua ki Orakei, and destroyed Ngati Whatua Runanga unity.

   He is selfish and arrogant, and will destroy anything in his way. Tainui needs to get it’s ship in order, or Tuku will run it to the ground…
8. tinorangatiratanga 8

   9 February 2011 at 11:54 am

   Tuku Morgan needs to walk away from Maoridom for ever, I would excommunicate him if he were in my tribe, he may have done good things but today he is doing bad things, if you cant be a balanced leader, if you cant look after your people like you should, if you are right into doing shonky deals and mana munching whilst your at it. Think again.
   Maori will not tolearate that kaka from any Maori leader anymore, whether they sit on iwi exec boards, parliament or even on whanau trust boards. Be honest tuku, you have no mana because you squandered it all away with your lies and deceit, now you want to jump on the band wagon wth Hone, he has ten times the mana you will ever have your tipuna would be extremely saddened by your behaviour, only they can judge you now.
9. climate justice 9

   9 February 2011 at 11:54 am

   Tuku needs to go. He is an unelected corporate whore.

   Why does the Iwi Leadership Group want to buy coal assets in the age of climate change? It is worth noting Jenny Shiply is on the board of Genesis Energy, so she has been setting up the privatisation while large companies have been eying up other NZ assets and resources:

   Tuku hasn’t said how him wanting a finger in the pie will stop other investors:

   Giant Chinese energy company Qinghua Group – with more than $12 billion of mining assets – is assessing several billion-dollar projects across the South Island – Qinghua’s joint venture partners… Greywolf Gold-mining, incorporated in March this year, are spearheading project analysis, saying Qinghua has $10 billion to spend in New Zealand in 2011.

   – Mr Lancaster said meetings were being sought through the offices of Prime Minister John Key and Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee, but the Pike River disaster had prompted deferral of meetings… http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/139064/chinese-assess-si-mining-projects

   “Mr Lancaster described Qinghua Group as the largest private Chinese mining company and “the Chinese version of BHP Billiton in Australia”, the world’s largest diversified resource group.”

   Why is Tuku wanting to buy up Genesis Energy and Solid Energy, when coal is a sunset industry? Maori could become clean energy leaders, and invest in getting the pacific set up with clean energy…
   • pollywog 9.1

     9 February 2011 at 4:40 pm

     eh !!!…solar farms and sugar beet to convert to ethanol is where the rohe should be thinking. Then buy shares in a satellite and hook the cuzzies up with cheap rural broadband.
10. Arto 10

    10 February 2011 at 10:55 am

    It is well known what a ripoff artist Tuku Morgan is!

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1. The Standard: posted on 8 February 2011 at 9:34 am

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