Te Kaika’s Donna Matahaere-Atariki yesterday gave a wide-ranging interview on The Platform, in which she also took aim at former chief executive Albie Laurence, prompting him to break a four-year silence.
Te Kaika — trading under the charity name Otakou Health Ltd — has consistently made headlines since the end of last year and is currently being investigated by the Department of Internal Affairs over allegations of ‘‘serious wrongdoing or deliberate/persistent non-compliance’’.
Ms Matahaere-Atariki has made only limited comments to the Otago Daily Times while the inquiry into the health and social service has progressed and yesterday labelled detractors as ‘‘cafe-drinking ... revolutionary-type people that actually don’t do anything in their community’’.
Mr Laurence left his role as chief executive in 2022 to resume his medical studies and neither he nor the charity had commented on his exit — until yesterday.
Ms Matahaere-Atariki described him as ‘‘a little bit of a letdown, because I guess he didn’t get the values that we got’’.
While Mr Laurence told the ODT he left the job ‘‘respectfully’’ after a divergence in views, she told The Platform that had he continued in the role he would have turned Te Kaika into ‘‘slum landlords’’.
‘‘He was in for making money. I didn’t want to do that,’’ Ms Matahaere-Atariki said.
Mr Laurence firmly rejected that characterisation and clarified that he departed Te Kaika because he believed the vision for the project was changing.
‘‘For me, it didn’t matter if the vulnerable were Māori, Pacific, Middle Eastern, Pākehā, New Zealand, Asian. It was about providing a cloak of support and care for those people,’’ he said.
‘‘And that didn’t mean that we had to be providing all the services. That meant partnering with others.’’
Ms Matahaere-Atariki also lashed out at claims of nepotism — her son Matt Matahaere is Te Kaika’s chief executive; her daughter Winnie Matahaere was general manager of social services until a few weeks ago when she was erased from the charity’s website.
In Facebook posts from Te Kaika’s account this week, she repeatedly said Mr Matahaere had been Mr Laurence’s ‘‘2IC’’, which naturally led to his elevation to the current role.
She said it was not her decision to give him the top job.
Mr Laurence, however, said that was ‘‘completely wrong’’.
‘‘[Mr Matahaere] was never a 2IC for me. He was hired as a principal iwi adviser ... That was his role,’’ he said.
‘‘He didn’t have any executive responsibilities. He was just an adviser to me and the board.’’
When Te Kaika was founded eight years ago, Mr Laurence and Ms Matahaere-Atariki were credited as co-founders, but throughout this week, the latter has said it was she and fellow board member Matapura Ellison behind the ambitious venture.
Mr Laurence said it was clear he was part of the inception, but refused to get dragged into a war of words.
‘‘I have a lot of respect for Donna and what she’s achieved throughout her life,’’ he said.
Te Kaika has come under scrutiny recently for its consistently late filing of annual audits, which Ms Matahaere-Atariki conceded was ‘‘regrettable and ... embarrassing’’.
She seemed to attribute some of the blame to Mr Laurence.
‘‘I think we had a former CEO who didn’t quite know ... how to code a lot of that money.’’
When interviewer Michael Laws raised that Mr Laurence’s departure had come four years ago, Ms Matahaere-Atariki said she did not want to ‘‘get into too much discussion about that’’.
As well as the DIA investigation, Oranga Tamariki is undertaking an assessment over allegations of abuse at a Te Kaika-run youth-remand home which has been closed for a year, and Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora revealed to the ODT it was looking into ‘‘contract management, performance management and potential or perceived conflicts of interest’’.
Ms Matahaere-Atariki, though, denied Te Kaika was under investigation.
Mr Laws pressed her on whether she was worried about the scrutiny.
‘‘Absolutely not,’’ she said.
‘‘It [feels] a little bit tall poppy.’’
Ms Matahaere-Atariki said funders had been ‘‘frightened by all the noise from the ODT’’ and she would not be providing any comment to the publication.
The ODT asked several follow-up questions yesterday but, true to her word, she did not respond.
