NZPP: The Party's Over

 

Direct links to Articles:

   

To SHARE a specific article, right-click on any of the article buttons above and select COPY LINK ADDRESS.

 




More Financial Lies, Billy?

7 January 2021

Billy Te Kahika is asking people to send him money...again.

The Billy version of events is this:
  1. Michael locked him out of the NZPP bank account.
  2. He cannot feed his family and now has to sell their house because of what Michael did.

"there is no money, we live hand to mouth in my home right now, it's been that way for some weeks now.... there is no money... "
     – from Vinny Eastwood LIVE with Billy

The Truth:

1) Billy was not locked out of any NZPP bank accounts. He never had access to the bank accounts from the beginning. Only the Party Secretary and Party Director did.

That had not changed since June. Michael handled the accounts with assistance from the Party Secretary.

When we were with Advance NZ it was the same. Jami-Lee and Michael were the only people on the bank account; a fact that was widely publicised.

On 6 January, 2021 the entire NZPP balance of $1,430.78 was transferred to Billy and the accounts have been closed.

2) Billy and his wife have been trying to sell their farm on and off for two years. When we were there in October before the election, they were prepping it again for putting it back on the market.

Oh, about the "no money"?

Billy was the highest paid person in NZPP in December: $4,500
And an additional $1,200 was given to him on 2nd of January (see the below chat).

BNZ Bank Statement for December:

Soliciting money under false pretences?

In September, an overseas investor to Billy's Indigenous Business Consultants (IBC) company sent Billy a large injection of funds, around $200,000. Billy walked into the car dealership and paid $159,950 cash for a Range Rover Discovery. We have told him on several occasions to sell the Range Rover. He could buy a brand new SUV with it and still have $60,000 to live on. But NO, Billy refused. This is not about "feeding his family" is it?

This is from our NZPP Admin Signal chat on 2 January 2021.

###


NZPP: The Party By the People
For the People.
This is Your Party
Yeah, Right. 

4 January 2021

The Scenario

The COVID-19 narrative forged the beginning of an interesting phenomenon…Billy Te Kahika’s Facebook LIVES. Billy’s raw ‘tell it like it is’ dissemination of unpopular facts created a movement, which then led to a party, and then a political campaign with Advance NZ to contest the 2020 General Election. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Throughout the campaign which, as we all know was hugely successful despite the outcome, there were unending attacks from armchair social media ‘reporters’, and regular assaults from the mainstream media. The barrage was endless and the stories all centred around common themes of behaviour and operation:

  • Unwarranted Control and Manipulation 
  • Broken Promises
  • Financial Irregularities 

Post-Election

During the campaign, Billy’s behaviour was tolerated by all the administration partners for the larger good, but since the end of the election, working with him has been untenable and unsustainable. Billy treated the party partners like they were his personal staff. He went about his activities as a ‘lone wolf’. He promised jobs within the party to people that he met while campaigning. He was consistently demeaning to his colleagues and showed no respect.

Meetings and Zooms with people were promised and repeatedly blown-off (he simply did not show up).

This is not how an organisation should be run and it makes it difficult to grow or maintain any growth achieved.


Financial Irregularities

Ashburton:
An impromptu event was held in Ashburton in November, when the administration team were in Christchurch planning the future of the party.

The Koha at the door took in $355 dollars in cash. Because of the attack articles on how Billy handled the Koha from the NZPP Events, we had a strict agreement that all Koha would be deposited into the NZPP bank account so that it could be tracked transparently in the Xero accounting system.

However, Billy handed me $150 cash from the Koha box and took the rest.

This is NOT what we agreed upon.

Tauranga:
Billy held an impromptu fundraising dinner for NZPP called ’Dinner with Billy’ in Tauranga on 18th November 2020. He did not want any assistance and it was last minute. The end result was a fiasco, as half of the people did not pay the entry fee — which totally negated the reason for having a fundraiser. After well over a thousand dollars for the meals was paid to the restaurant, there was about $500 left — which Billy pocketed. Not one dollar ever reached the bank account of NZPP, as had been agreed.


Personal Bank Account:

Just before Christmas, NZPP admin were obliged to remove a Facebook post where Billy had posted his personal bank account details so that people could send him money directly. We replaced that post with one calling for donations to the official NZPP bank account instead. We were dismayed to see that comments were coming thick and fast asking us if the earlier post was a scam. The original post from Billy was screen shot and shared widely by the party's detractors as proof of wrongdoing.

There are four full time staff necessary to run NZPP. During the entire campaign I did not receive any income from the party. Neither did some of the other administrators. I lived on my savings.

However, in trying to build up the party as a continuing entity (a real party) there would have to be some type of payment to the administrators as we need to live, eat, pay rent, etc.

Billy has a family. We understand that, but there was never any discussion by him about his actual financial needs, requirements, etc, even though he was asked multiple times.

Excluding the other partners in NZPP and taking money personally (in the name of the party) is not OK in any way shape or form. For example, giving out a personal bank account to members of the public and accepting donations privately as the visible face of the NZPP movement when others are working hard without an income is insulting. Not seeing that anything is wrong with that is incredible.


Pop Goes the Weasel

On 31 December, Billy posted a draft of a Letter to the PM, that he was about to post to Facebook, onto our executive chat. One small problem — it included much of the text of the “Declaration and Order of 13 December 2020” written by Te Wakaminenga o Nga Tino Rangitira.

The Rangitira who was given the authority over the document had given me strict instruction that if Billy tried to release the document again, then he needed to be informed immediately. Why? Because Billy, in his Facebook Lives, had started to take credit for serving that document on the government by implying that ‘we’ served it. The document and the serving of the document had nothing to do with Billy or NZPP, it was a matter for the Te Wakaminenga Rangitira.

I called the Rangitira in charge of the Declaration document and told him that he needed to call Billy right away before he posted the letter on Facebook as Billy was no longer listening to me.

Why does this matter? It is a point of jurisdiction. Te Wakaminenga o Nga Tino Rangitira o Nga Hapu o Aotearoa Nu Tireni 1835 is a PRIVATE group and operates in the PRIVATE. “PRIVATE” means that it is operating outside the structure and jurisdiction of the government/corporate world. If the document was allowed to be co-opted by Billy and he was allowed to make it seem that NZPP (a political structure) did it, then the entire work that had gone into the document could be damaged irretrievably.

Instead of taking heed of the discussion with the call from the Rangitira, Billy chose to post the letter anyway then implied that I had leaked “sensitive executive documents” to somebody outside the party.

  1. No documents were ‘leaked’ to anybody. It was a phone call, as asked for by the Rangitira.
  2. The Declaration document has nothing to do with NZPP or Billy, thus they are not nor could they be internal documents.

Billy had gone against his word to the Rangitira and had been caught. Plain and simple. The tantrum which ensued was the result.

[Download the PDF letter of concerns from Rangitira Arikinui Heruika/Alfred Mitchell.]


NZPP On Hold

Billy started NZPP, the movement. The ownership and control of NZPP stopped being his when he enjoined me and my company Rubicon Crossing 2020 Ltd. That company was set up originally to manage the Reset New Zealand Party. I had a Deed of Trust created that gave Rubicon Crossing 2020 Ltd the authority to manage Reset New Zealand, then New Zealand Public Party.

In June, the Intellectual Property (IP) of the Logo and Name was transferred and registered to the party itself (New Zealand Public Party) and is therefore no longer under Billy’s ownership.

As agreed upon when we started this together:

  • Billy - front end (speaking)
  • Michael - back end (all IT and administration)
  • Bill Karaitiana - finance/Secretary

After Bill Karaitiana left, all of the accounting stuff fell to me as well.

Since I was literally financing the entire NZPP endeavour myself without any salary or payment from NZPP, I retained ownership of all of the IT, domain names, and databases. This proved a saving grace when NZPP merged with Advance NZ and later split from Advance NZ.

For me that was 130 days, from 11 June to 19 October, times 17+ hours per day, 7-days a week = 2,210 hours+. That is a serious mahi aroha.

Now Billy has, in his words, removed Michelle (the Party Secretary) and myself from the movement. Notice I said “movement”, because Billy has no authority to remove us from the Party itself.

Billy is now demanding that I give him the membership database and has, in writing ‘declared war’ against me.

Where is this coming from?

There you go, in his own words. Anybody who challenges Billy as leader of the NZPP movement (and therefore, the Party) will be removed.

That is problematic: it isn’t democratic. It also goes against the very founding principles of NZPP.

When we had our executive meeting in Christchurch in November, I brought up the fact that as part of party registration we would need to provide a written Constitution to the membership, and what’s more, we would need a Board of Directors. Billy did not want a Board of Directors as he feared they would and could countermand him. He also did not want any written constitution that could possibly remove him as leader of the NZPP Party.

That, therefore, ISN'T a political party, it is a cult. In fact it is more like a cult than a cause. And it certainly ISN’T a Party for the People and by the People. It is “The Billy Show”, and has no place as a political party –– as a movement, perhaps, but not as a registered political party.

It would not be right to give Billy the membership database under these circumstances especially when, as a party, we were trying to remove EXACTLY these types of people from Parliament!


The Transparent and Correct Solution

As of right now, the New Zealand Public Party and membership database have been placed in Escrow with a legal team and will be released only if these conditions are met:

  1. That an Incorporated Society to run the Party is created and maintained for a minimum of two full calendar years.
  2. That the Incorporated Society be bound by a written Constitution which (like all other political parties) has provisions for removing a party executive or leader who is non-performing or refuses to follow procedures or policy, or has gone rogue. And that motions are brought up and passed in a democratic fashion.
  3. That this Constitution be bound for a full two years before any alterations can be made to it.
  4. That the Incorporated Society has a Board of Director of 8 people, and that they be vetted by a third party to be named.

The Party does not need to be registered until January 2023, the year of the next general election, and all of the existing paid memberships will still be completely valid.

The above would ensure that THE PEOPLE are actually getting a Party BY the People, FOR the People.

So many people have supported us; given of their time and money. They deserve the transparency and accountability that was so often preached to them, otherwise this has just been one grand misrepresentation by Billy.


The Clean Up

  1. The Deed of Trust granting Rubicon Crossing 2020 Ltd the power to manage NZPP has been rescinded and is no longer in force.
  2. I have resigned as Director of Rubicon Crossing 2020 Ltd and no longer have any shares in it.
  3. I have resigned as Party Director of New Zealand Public Party, as I am no longer comfortable with Billy's actions.
  4. Billy Te Kahika is the sole Director of Rubicon Crossing 2020 Ltd and, this week, will have sole access to the Rubicon Crossing 2020/NZPP bank accounts and Xero account.

Recurring Donations

We have had a small amount of people do recurring weekly and monthly donations. Please be assured that all of those recurring payments have been completely cancelled.

If you are still being charged, please check if the charge is coming from AdvanceNZ instead.


Further

It has been one heck of a ride being involved in the possibility of getting into Parliament and I feel quite humbled by all of the supporters that I have had the opportunity to speak with and get to know personally. We did the work that was needed during the election campaign. We raised awareness, we achieved small wins, we got the attention of the media and the world.

But as our new information shows, there is no possibility of a political party making any change to the New Zealand government — this is because the New Zealand Government is only a corporation, and has no sovereignty over the people. There are many reasons for taking this action, but for this reason alone it is sensible to put NZPP into hiatus at this time.

Regards,
:Michael: Stace.
Former Party Director
New Zealand Public Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

©2021 New Zealand Public Party