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The Māori loan affair (or loans affair) of 1986 and 1987 in New Zealand was an unauthorised attempt by Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK; the Māori Affairs Department) to raise money overseas for Māori development. The affair was first raised in Parliament on 16 December 1986 with a question from opposition National MP Winston Peters about loan negotiations; the revelations dumbfounded ministers; and the House adjourned on 18 December. Peters was reluctant to share all his information with Roderick Deane or his National Party leader Jim Bolger, and Bolger then downplayed the affair. Peters was getting information from an informant in Wetere’s office and from Rotorua businessman Rocky Cribb. Peters was first advised of the affair by Edwin Perry an associate of Cribb and like Cribb a National Party member. The affair helped Peters′ promotion to the front bench after the 1987 election. Members of the Fourth Labour Government were divided on the action to be taken, with David Lange, Lange's staff, and Geoffrey Palmer wanting the resignation of Koro Wētere as Minister of Maori Affairs and from his seat in Parliament (Wētere would then face a by-election in an election year), though Cabinet decided against this on 9 February. Hence as Bassett later wrote, “Several ministers would agree in later years, however that it was about the time of the Maori loans affair that cabinet solidarity began to fall apart” ; and Roger Douglas said when he resigned that “’hostilities’ started with the Maori loans affair”.〔‘Hostilities started with the Maori loans affair’ New Zealand Herald, 16 December 1988; section 1 p3〕 At the beginning of 1987 a Television New Zealand report from Hawaii claimed a link with the CIA and suggested an American attempt to destabilise the Labour government because of its anti-nuclear policy, although Palmer thought the matter involved incompetence in the Department. Ronald Rewald had opened a branch of his Hawaian investment firm in Auckland, and it was shown on local television; however Rewald was convicted of various crimes including perjury; he had claimed that he was financed and employed by the CIA. ==The Loan== The loan, supposedly of $NZ 600 million of Middle Eastern petrodollars (including a “finder’s fee” of $NZ 20 million), was to be used to set up a Māori Resource Development Corporation which would use Māori labour to prefabricate houses for export. The Secretary of Māori Affairs (Tamati Reedy) was negotiating as Māori Trustee, but had been counselled against the proposed loan by Graham Scott of Treasury in November. Senior departmental officials had attended a series of meetings in Hawaii, and been introduced to the participants by Rocky Cribb a businessman from Rotorua Roderick Deane the Chairman of the State Services Commission was asked to investigate, and when he uncovered evidence of departmental incompetence produced a fuller report on Christmas eve. Sometimes working through the night, he found that “some ministers” had known about the negotiations but failed to stop it, and Reedy’s signing of a document headed “Unconditional and Irrevocable Fee Agreement” was unauthorised and contrary to Treasury advice. The terms of 4% interest over 25 years were not believable; the money according to a telex from the embassy in Washington was probably laundered, fraudulent or non-existent; and the supposed source of the loan, one Achmed Omar of the Kuwaiti royal family did not exist. The loan was for $US 300 million, and papers released suggested that the proposal would use Maori land as collateral, and that as well as the 3.5% fee to Gicondi there would also be a 2.5% fee for Raepelle, totalling 6%. Trevor de Cleene suggested that the money source might be Ferdinand Marcos who was then living in Hawaii. The first interest payment would have been $24 million; David Lange, who was in his element, told a hui “You tell me the kids are out in the streets .... the next minute you tell me you can finance $24 million”. Activist Titewhai Harawira told Lange that “the Māori people needed far more than $600 million, and the government should let them borrow it.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Māori loan affair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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