John Tamihere - Asshole of the Week | The Jackal

20 Nov 2012

John Tamihere - Asshole of the Week

John Tamihere might come across as a jovial kind of chap, but his recent statements have been entirely undiplomatic and show him to be just another political fool.

Worse yet, Tamihere's spiteful comments directed at past and present Labour MP's make it look like he has no intention of actually joining Labour at all. In fact Tamihere spends most of his time agreeing with National party policy and bagging the things Labour believe in.

Clearly he's just another tory shill and displays all the signs of a full blown right-winger...

Last Saturday, GayNZ reported:

Former Labour MP John Tamihere has attacked the party as being ‘too focused on issues like gay marriage’ after being kept out of its conference this weekend.

While he wants to make a political comeback, his membership is yet to be approved by the party hierarchy.

“It’s a bit like joining the Head Hunters,” he said in an interview with 3 News reporter Patrick Gower. “As I'm trying to walk through, trying to get my membership, they are all there beating you – it’s a bit like a gang, a gang initiation.”

[...]

On his Radio Live talkback programme he has repeatedly voiced homophobic slurs and has also made derogatory comments about Labour's gay MPs.

On Sunday, Scoop reported:

There have been no cries of alleluia to the prospect of former Labour Party cabinet minister John Tamihere’s resurrection from political purgatory to re-join Labour’s ranks again.

While the Party’s faithful gathered for their conference in Auckland this weekend, John Tamihere told TVNZ’s Marae Investigates this morning that he’d been advised it would be inappropriate for him to attend.

“I’ve got media accreditation, I could go and make it a media circus but I’m not interested in doing that.” Mr Tamihere told interviewer Scotty Morrison.

During the Marae Investigates interview (video), John Tamihere also said:

"Parekura is going porkies mate," and "He's doing well on the balls-up circuit".

The hypocritical Tamihere then says:

"You just have to get the conversation raised above the pettiness".

Yesterday, the NZ Herald reported:

Loizos Michaels has denied 31 deception charges at the Auckland District Court.

[...]

Last week the 45-year-old claimed he had lost money in an online gaming venture with former Christchurch Casino chief executive Stephen Lyttelton and that National Party President Peter Goodfellow was involved in a bid to take over Sky City.

Michaels also pointed the finger at politicians Pita Sharples and John Tamihere, who he said had been paid money by Mr Lyttelton.

There's probably no validity to what Loizos Michaels has said about Pita Sharples and John Tamihere, basically because he's a bullshit artist. The problem here is that Tamihere is a bullshit artist as well and has only been making sounds about joining Labour in order to gain attention, media attention he's then used to attack Labour with.

It appears that there's no truth to the claims that Tamihere was banned from Labour's conference over the weekend. Tamihere is simply not a member of the party and therefore couldn't attend in that capacity. He would also need to arrange a media pass, and couldn't simply waltz in like he owns the place. There's nothing new about this, and all major political parties in New Zealand operate this way.

So clearly Tamihere is gaining too much attention for what is effectively a lie. Why anybody would give the drunken animal abuser the time of day is beyond me. Clearly the only reason he wants to get back into politics is to get his grubby hands on some more golden handshakes. Where did that $800,000 go btw John?

There will be no benefit to Maori if Tamihere actually manages to advance his septic political career, because for all intents and purposes he's a honky who only cares about his own interests. The misogynistic John Tamihere has been tested and found wanting, he therefore wins this week's asshole award.